As the rest of the world rushes madly off to plastic surgeons or cosmetologists to efface the disfigurements of skin diseases, Lauren Kalman runs in the opposite direction: creating jewelry that simulates pustules and lesions, affixing her handiwork to the skin of female models and then shooting their “embellished” bodies in uncompromising color. It would take a treatise in postmodern cultural theory, which Kalman provides, to explain why she has undertaken her subversive task; suffice it to say that seekers after beauty should look elsewhere and aficionados of the grotesque will experience their eyes’ delight. More faux medical illustrations than fashion shots, Kalman’s images evoke the deeper sense that unwanted eruptions are the pits and cannot be redeemed by art. Turn a pimple into a jewel and it still has the same effect as a zit, which is not Kalman’s purpose (she intends deep play with the culturalized body), yet it is what she has revealed. (Michael Weinstein)
Through May 21 at the International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive
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