Edith Maybin "The Tenby Document"
Edwynn Houk Gallery
This event has ended.
"The Tenby Document" is an intimate exploration of the interactions between mother and daughter, and the discovery of the “self” through another. In 2005, Maybin began to photograph herself and her daughter in a house in the town of Tenby, Wales. Playfully reenacting stories within their enclosed setting, Maybin photographed mother and child separately and in the same position, often bridging the gap between them by digitally reassembling their bodies into a single figure. The structured Marks and Spencer undergarments featured in the photographs link the two models to the tradition of Maybin’s own mother, further blurring the lines that distinguish one generation from another. Inspired by Lady Clementina Hawarden’s Victorian photographs of her daughters, Maybin offers reflections and openings as escapes from structure. In this interior setting, mother and daughter reverse roles and identities, and together engage in novel forms of self-discovery. Throughout the series, Maybin employs surrealist distortions that challenge reality: a woman and her child are merged into one, the back of a head is reflected where the face should appear, four legs emerge from a single torso. Maybin’s photographs grant us access to that which is beyond the usual limits of perception, and these unprecedented views of the individual are the core of Maybin’s exploration.
[Image: Edith Maybin "Untitled #15B" (2006)]
Media
Schedule
from June 19, 2008 to August 28, 2008
Opening reception: June 19, 6–8 pm.