Fascinated by the “experience” contained in homes of the past, Alysia Kaplan seeks “points of entry” by making wall sculptures of ornate doorknobs, old-fashioned keys and a fancy doormat. She paints her works in the same fresh white color as the wall, places them on it symmetrically with a door knob and keys at each end, and the doormat between them at the bottom. To complete her installation, Kaplan has placed on top, above the mat, two softly focused black-and-white circular photographs of an ivory-colored statue of Diana the Huntress in a strong forward-leaning pose, and arranged them so that the figures face each other across a social abyss. The drama of the installation lies in the encounter—more like a confrontation—between the two statues that radiates self-assertion, a clash of rivalrous wills, of house-proud mistresses presiding over identical impeccably ordered domiciles and distinguished only by the tension created by their identical expressions of possessiveness. Although it might not seem so at first look, Kaplan makes good on her program of creating “a cultural critique of the home as commodity and signifier.” (Michael Weinstein)
Through May 1 at Living Room Gallery, 1530 W. Superior
Lost in Translation: A Review of Crip* at Gallery 400 The strongest works in the exhibition succinctly express the ways the artist relates to their own body while calling out how the artist’s body and body of work has been perceived or coded against norms or ideals.
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