Location: New York City Guggenheim Museum.
Date of visit: August 28, 2008
When first examining the works by Catherine Opie, I couldn’t help but notice her subjects in contrast with her use of color. Specifically, her ‘Portraits’ series and her ‘Being and Having’ series contain an element of elegance about them. Aesthetically and compositionally the photographs struck me as being mesmerizing. Using bright solid colors as her backdrop, Opie exhibits a community of individuals who conflict with society’s norm. After processing this information, I was able to truly understand the nature of her work and appreciate the way in which she conveys ideas about gender and identity. Much of Catherine’s work is very personal. An obvious influence of American documentary artist, Walker Evans is apparent, but Opie has a way of personalizing her work like I have never viewed before. Especially shocking are her shirtless self-portraits. In contrast to her somewhat humorous display of friends and LA locals, her self portrait seems to convey much more pain. Specifically, the self-portrait entitled ‘cutting’ shows Opie with her back facing the viewer and a freshly carved child-like drawing on her back. This gave me a sense of physical pain as I was confronted with bleeding flesh, but also an emotional reaction to the obstacles the artist faces.
Opie’s bravery to produce such works is admirable. I really enjoyed her portraits because there is certain amount of drama I try to capture in my own photography. I was refreshing to see her style of portraiture. Her subjects are people who may be considered freaks by society and possess a kind of deviance but also innocence. They defy the standard aesthetic of what is easily accepted in our culture, yet they carry such innocent and real expressions. The body of work is nothing less than shocking, dramatic, and aesthetically beautiful.
Opie’s diverse taste in photography filled the gallery walls. I noticed that there were a select few bodies of work which were black and white. I found these to be an interesting shift from her portraits. From freeways to mini-malls to Wall Street, Opie, I feel captured not only a setting, but a feeling. In this genre of photographs, although they lack human figures, they still possess a sense of community. There seemed to be a hazy and unearthly tone to the black and white prints. I felt the stills to be quite interesting because perhaps we don’t need to see the actual figures to understand the kinds of people who dwell in the area. I found my own imagination filling the sidewalks of Wall Street with men in business suits and locals scurrying through the busy city streets.
( Can't places be portraits???---I agree that Opie's work connects through ideas of community,
but it needn't only reference the body.)
Finally, I was confronted with several photographs from her series, ‘domestic’ where I was thrown into the living room of a homosexual family. It was really interesting to view these as well because society is often sheltered from these realities in a community. Although everyone knows they exist, homosexual households are often kept suppressed from the public and they are certainly not commercialized or made products of any type of media. Seeing these very natural settings was truly enlightening.
Nadia,
Nicely written!
Was there an exhibition title for the works? a retrospective? How is Opie's statement about her work compare to your analysis? Also important in Opie's work is scale, especially the Portraits - taken with large format polaroids. Her intent is important in how you evaluate the works-- how does she contextualize them-- especailly the new Ice house series?
http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/opie/overview.html
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