NYAB Event - Polixeni Papapetrou “Stories from the Other Side”

Polixeni Papapetrou “Stories from the Other Side”

Jenkins Johnson Projects

This event has ended.

Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, presents Stories from the Other Side, a solo exhibition of photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou. The exhibition features two of Papapetrou’s most recently completed series, The Ghillies and Between Worlds, and will be her first solo show with Jenkins Johnson Gallery in New York. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, April 4 from 6 to 8 pm, which will feature a discussion with writer and curator Susan Bright at 7 pm. Accompanying the exhibition will be a full color catalogue entitled ”The Ghillies” with an essay by Chris Healy, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Australian photographer Polixeni Papapetrou creates darkly whimsical images that grapple with conceptual definitions of childhood, both historically and in contemporary society. Addressing what it means to be a child, Papapetrou uses her work to argue that the institution of childhood is an adult construct created to satisfy roles in society. Like Bill Henson and Sally Mann, Papapetrou encountered controversy when a 2003 photograph of her nude six-year-old daughter, Olympia, entitled Olympia as Lewis Carroll’s Beatrice Hatch Before White Cliffs, graced the cover of Art Monthly Australia. Complaints of child pornography and violations of child protection legislation followed, and Papapetrou began photographing children wearing masks or with their faces obscured as a way to remove the childhood identity and add an element of layering to the figures. Papapetrou is also inspired by the spectacle of dress-up and performance that appeared in 19th century French and English tableaux photography, so she looks to photographers like Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, and Clementina Lady Hawarden. She finds further inspiration in the work of photographers, like Diane Arbus, Roger Ballen, Richard Billingham, Martin Parr, and Nan Goldin, who portray the everyday world around them and in doing so reveal a secluded inner world. Papapetrou’s work is often compared to that of Cindy Sherman for her presentation of such a varied array of characters and personalities.

[Image: Polixeni Papapetrou “Salt Man” (2012) pigment print, 47.25 x 47.25 in., edition of 8; 59 x 59 in., edition of 1.]