What Nick Cave does with sound suits, Ariana Page Russell does with her skin. Both suits and skin are a means of a expressing a flamboyant relationship to the body. (Click to enlarge.) Says Russell:
The power of a blush, an ephemeral and
uncontrollable response revealing internal sentiment, becomes the
fashion of skin. I have sensitive skin that easily flushes. In Dressing,
I use the imagery of this temporary change as my medium via collages
made from photographs of my skin. These collages show shades of
sensitivity in reds and pinks made into patterns, then scanned and
printed as temporary tattoos.I place the skin tattoos back on skin,
adorning myself with a longer lasting, intentional blush. Rather than
being frustrated by my skin’s transparency, I claim it by dressing
up in the crimson hues that reveal my vulnerability.
Vulnerability is not the word I’d chose. She turns the meaning of a blush inside out, into a celebratory song of self. She’s at Platform Gallery through July 3.
What a variety there is in self-portraits by women artists – from Alice Neel painting herself nude when she was an old woman, to this art.
I’m assuming you mean August 3? 🙂
No. July 31. I didn’t see a close date on her show on the gallery Web site, but the gallery’s exhibit in the front room closes July 31, which strongly implies (lacking evidence to the contrary), the project space show ends then.
Both Ariana’s and Stephen Hilyard’s shows close July 31. The gallery will host the launch of Ariana’s new book, “Dressing,” as well as new books of Steven Miller’s “Milky” series and Bill Jacobson’s “A Series of Human Decisions,” on First Thursday, August 6 and an artists’ book signing on Saturday, August 8 from 4pm to 6pm.