A Perfect Human, curated by Milena Hoegsberg and Megha Ralapati at Dorsch Gallery

Sreshta Premnath. Green Screen, 2008, Chroma key green backdrop paper, backdrop stand, 60 x 84 x 88 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

January 31 - February 28, 2009

Dorsch Gallery presents “A Perfect Human,” a group exhibition including works in video, sculpture, sound and film by Zhao Bandi, Martin Basher, Melissa Dubbin & Aaron S. Davidson, Joergen Leth, Patrick McElnea and Sreshta Premnath.

Curated by Milena Hoegsberg and Megha Ralapati, “A Perfect Human” explores people’s struggle for and obsessions with personal and collective ideas of perfection: How we stage, package, and present ourselves, communicating and connecting with each other and the world. The exhibition takes inspiration from the highly successful political branding of the candidate Barack Obama, who became a symbol of the possibility for national change. The works included in this show engage a wide spectrum of notions of perfection and the ideals and the cultural systems and symbols that reinforce them.

“Bandi,” 2008, a single-channel video, presents artist Zhao Bandi practicing for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Martin Basher neatly stacks self-help books to the height of the average American. Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S. Davidson’s sound sculpture “Making a Record (diamond)” explores the diamond’s dual function as an object of adornment and as an industrial tool. Joergen Leth’s 1967 short film “The Perfect Human” (Det Perfekte Menneske), from which the show takes its title, demonstrates the ideal of a middle-class couple living in Denmark in the late 1960s. In his video “The Living Room,” artist Patrick McElnea conflates photographs and magazine cut-outs of architectural interiors and exteriors, real space and pictorial space, creating a theatrical stage set that forms the backdrop for his exploration of various identities. Sreshta Premnath’s “Green Screen” shows a template onto which any identity and, subsequently, any emotion can be projected.

Dorsch Gallery is located at 151 NW 24 Street, Miami, FL. For more, see dorschgallery.com.