Ben Durham "Text Portraits"
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery
This event has ended.
The exhibitions feature three series, Text Portraits, Map Diptychs and Map Composites. Drawn on thick handmade paper, the Text Portraits are comprised of Durham’s memories of the subject, resulting in an eerily accurate picture composed entirely of text. Durham’s writing is densely layered at times, wearing away the paper’s surface to depict shadows, hair and eyes, while light cheeks and shoulders remain legible. In the Map Diptychs, lines representing the streets where the subject has lived repeat over each segment, acting as a kind of topographic skeleton underlying the subject’s silhouette on one side of the diptych, and on the other as an abstract diagram, "dyed blue, like a tattoo or a vein." As Durham writes, “The map image loosely forms the silhouette of the portrait just as the portrait is indelibly marked by the map... a diagram of a life marked on the skin.” For the Map Composites, dyed paper is sliced along the street grids of specific neighborhoods relating to each subject. These pieces are reconfigured and arranged to form a silhouette of the subject’s mug shot, creating “new combined streets and territories... a personal topography built of many maps.” In all three series, paper, used as sculptural material, creates conceptual parallels between modes of representation.
Media
Schedule
from January 07, 2011 to February 19, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-01-07 from 18:00 to 20:00