Solitary States. Chelsea Galleria, Wynwood Art District, Miami

June 14th - July 31st, 2008

By Raisa Clavijo

In June, Chelsea Galleria inaugurated “Solitary States” curated by Bryan Barcena. With this exhibition, Barcena reflects on  different forms of solitude in contemporary society. Thus, solitude is no longer merely viewed as a negative state leading to a subject’s alienation, but also as a state of grace that can lead the individual to find answers to existential questions through intimate contact with his inner self.

Works presented at this exhibition reflect these positions in a more or less explicit manner. The show assembles a group of creators who work with various media, including photography, painting, video art and performance. Some of the participants are: Patty Carroll, Jason DeMarte, Susan Lipper, Tribble & Mancenido, Larry Bercow, Jose Felix Perez, Yuri Tuma, Stefan Svensson, among others. Of note are the photographs of Patty Carroll. In them, anonymous feminine silhouettes get lost or are silently transformed behind the decorative elements that compose a domestic scene. These works arise from the personal experience of the artist in the United Kingdom, within a social context that she found to be much more conventional than in the United States. It was a context in which she felt that her marital or material status prevailed over her own status as woman and artist. Her photographs transmit the notion of the “perfect home” as a precisely furnished space with elements, symbolizing status or comfort, which are directly associated with the prototypical woman, a prototype that stifles the subject’s own personal identity.

Jason DeMarte for his part, associates the image of dwellings with the image of pills supposedly ingested by their inhabitants in pursuit of a healthier life. His photographs, devoid of human presence, revolve around how the rituals and myths of everyday life can create a place of alienation for the contemporary individual. Furthermore, the artist reflects on consumerism and the absurd stereotypes with which certain products are often associated.

Tribble & Mancenido and Yuri Tuma offer the spectator a chance to glimpse the intimacy of their photos’ protagonists. Tribble & Mancenido’s characters make way for the artists and allow them to invade their space. They appear before them comfortable and without inhibitions, their faces denoting a certain complacency at being observed. Individuals captured by Yuri Tuma, however, appear to have been surprised in moments of abandon while enjoying their solitude. Here, Tuma is also a voyeur who joins us to observe without being seen, and together we peer at the intimate scene of a character, perhaps a man, perhaps a woman, primping coquettishly before a mirror in the men’s room next to two pairs of women’s shoes.

In this show, solitude, so common in today’s society, reveals itself and shows us several of its facets. Through the artist’s eye, the spectator finds an open vista to the experience of others, inevitably finding links to his own reality.