Untitled, 2004 inkjet print Jeanne Dunning For her exhibition in the main gallery, Jeanne Dunning has completed a group of photographs that expand on her previous investigations into the human body and its metaphoric potential. "The Scattered Part"s series presents bits of anatomy poking through small holes in swaths of cloth. Tongues, lips and digits are isolated in fields of black drapery, bringing to mind traditional still-life arrangements. These dramatic constellations of bodily fragments are theatrically menacing and refuse to coalesce back into a comprehensible body. It is as if in spite of this apparent dismemberment, the subject's parts remain pink, pulsing and alive. In another series of images Dunning uses the holes in translucent Halloween masks to separate and reconfigure parts of the face. Models wear clear masks upside down or sideways, and with our perception confused, we are disconcerted to find an eye peering through the opening of the mouth, or a stubbled chin where the eye should be. The see-through mask and the person behind it form an incomprehensible hybrid: the closer one looks, the less discernible the person becomes. In two additional works, the scene is a bed covered in tossled white sheets. In one, only a single hand emerges from the sea of bedding, looking strangely bereft of the body it implies. In the other, a woman calmly sleeps with her arms and hands comfortably stretched across the covers around her; however, there are in fact three hands, all of which impossibly seem to be hers. With this latest body of photographs, Dunning juxtaposes the specificity of parts that make up a whole against the unrecognizable blur of a specific identity. Jeanne Dunning has exhibited internationally and are represented in numerous private and public collections. Exhibition: February 19 - March 27, 2004 Gallery hours: Tue-Sat 11 am - 6 pm Feigen Contemporary (Main Gallery) 535 West 20th Street USA-New York, NY 10011 Telephone +1 212 929.0500 Fax +1 212 929.0065 Email Gallery@FeigenContemporary.com www.feigencontemporary.com |
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