Tommy Kha “Insensitive Flesh”

Baxter Street/ the Camera Club of NY

poster for Tommy Kha “Insensitive Flesh”
[Image: Tommy Kha "Headtown II" (2016)]

This event has ended.

Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York presents Insensitive Flesh by 2018 Workspace Resident Tommy Kha. This exhibition, comprised of new photographic and photo-sculptural works, explores themes of likeness, representation, and otherness through the framework of the self-portrait.

In his work, Kha photographs his own body to create life size cutouts of his body and masks of his face. Using these cutouts and masks, he then rephotographs them in various scenarios interacting with a regular cast of sitters including his mother, Queer, and Asian figures, and in different geographic settings—often taking place in the South. These rephotographs echo performances of and around his self, resulting in a photograph and subject sitting somewhere between a still life, portrait and self-portrait, and landscape.

Through the camera, Kha’s rephotographs, or “pictures of pictures”, are sourced directly from an autobiographical archive, transformed into seemingly minimal collage work done within the camera. The cutouts change in appearance, whereas the masks manifest as different materials—either as 3-D printed, cloth, or paper—both never remain the exact, same form. The jigsaw puzzles echo the cutouts, though they often appear never fully assembled.

The images consistently point out how out-of-place his photographed body is, echoing his everyday experiences. Specifically with the mask, Kha resituates his face on Queer, Asian, and Southern bodies—or simply, bodies he desires to have, thereby making himself more queer, more Asian, more Southern. His work shifts between comedy and tragedy, familiarity and foreignness, performer and camera operator. In short, Kha’s work is about the self in self-portrait, the portrait in self-portrait, and the hyphen in self-portrait.

Insensitive Flesh is dedicated in memory of William Kiersky

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Schedule

from May 01, 2019 to June 01, 2019
Coffee Talk: Saturday, May 18th, 11am. Conversation with Pixy Liao: Wednesday, May 22nd, 7pm.

Opening Reception on 2019-05-01 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Tommy Kha

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