Ariana Page Russell “Broad Channels”
Magnan Metz Gallery
This event has ended.
Magnan Metz Gallery presents Ariana Page Russell’s fourth solo show with the gallery, a transformative dialog presented through photography, sculpture, installation and performance.
The title of the exhibition is an homage to the Broad Channel in Jamaica Bay, New York. The channel acts as a connective intermediary between the wildlife reserves and the urban landscape whilst maintaining the buffer between the two worlds and preserving the unique natural areas. A function not too far removed from the intrinsic behavior of our own sheath - like dermis navigating the binary relationship between the interior and exterior self. The skin separates inside from outside, yet allows flow through. A system informed by fluids and touch providing a channel for love, connection, release, withdrawal, and renewal.
Broad Channels presents a body of work embracing Russell’s dermatographia, a skin condition in which welts appear when lightly scratched as well as an uncontrollable tendency to blush. Rather than being frustrated by her condition, she has chosen to claim her skin’s transparency by dressing in the shades of red that expose her vulnerability. Introducing the exhibition is Medusa, a powerful floor to ceiling translucent print of Russell dressed in nebula temporary skin tattoos adhered to the gallery’s window forming a channel of communication between the artwork in the gallery and the outside world.
The skin is an organ rich in knowledge and the body has a language that speaks through it. In Trace the artist has created trace images of various parts of her body pressing mirrors against her body leaving behind imprints made up of skin cells. Similarly, Stamp, a mirrored chair is left with only the suggestion of her body and an intangible record of her physical presence.
The walls are lined with Russell’s rose-toned likeness, many focusing on the distortion of the source image. No longer using the transparencies to adorn her body Pucker, Routes and Buoy are unique photographic transfers onto a paper surface, the work’s viscous surface creating a warped tension within the composition.
Media
Schedule
from December 12, 2014 to January 17, 2015
Performance by the artist: Thursday, January 8th, 6-8 PM
Opening Reception on 2014-12-11 from 18:00 to 20:00