“Objects of
Desire” is tucked away in Gallery 5 at 21C. Gallery 5 is a small room that has
been converted from a garage, and in here this modestly sized exhibition
collects the work of seven international artists. The show cultivated here is
concerned with interrogating the social construct of physical desire.
The works
themselves are displayed as photographs in frames, on three out of four of the
room’s walls. The fourth wall is a converted garage door that lets in natural
light through clouded plastic- a remnant of the past uses of the building and a
genuinely interesting lighting solution which adds character to the room. The
arrangement of the works is unremarkable, they are displayed at roughly eye
level on a white wall. Overall, after the soaring ceiling and innovative
displays elsewhere in the 21C galleries, entering Gallery 5 is slightly
underwhelming. This is not helped by the fact that the gallery is not clearly
marked, tucked away at the back of a hallway and the door was locked at the
time I arrived to view the exhibit, even though the exhibit was open and
currently on display. This was a minor logistical error that was easily
resolved, however I do feel bad for the artists whose works were accidentally
hidden by the venue.
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| Don Algodon by Rene Peña. Silver gelatin print, 2016 |
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| HeVi, Oslo by Zanele Muholi. Silver gelatin print, 2016 |
However,
the works themselves are powerful and challenging. From Muholi’s
confrontational self-portrait as a dark-skinned ‘exotic beauty’, othered and
fetishized by white beauty standards to Nabil’s sensual reclining portraits of
young men, each piece has a unique idea related to the exhibition’s theme. Some
overlap exists- both René Peña and Zanele Muholi have displayed works which
examine racial biases in beauty standards- but even these works approach the
theme in different ways. In “HeVi, Oslo”
by Zanele Muholi, a silver gelatin print, Muholi confronts the viewer in her
image with the stereotype black female bodies have been placed in, creating an
image which is both desirable and engages the viewer with a piercing stare. The
viewer is engaged as complicit in the othering and marginalization of Muholi
and black female bodies. She also unashamedly presents a portrait unmodified to
meet white standards of beauty. Her hair is not straightened, her skin is not
altered to appear lighter. Even the medium of a photograph as a way of
displaying black female beauty is not without import. Infamously, photography
companies spent years optimizing color stocks for capturing skin using only
test cards of young white female models. Muholi is part of a process of
creating a space within the field of photography where black bodies can be
portrayed accurately without modification. This is a very different way of
approaching the subject from Peña, who comments more indirectly on race and
beauty standards. His work is more about consumer culture and the status
conferred on desirable bodies. In “Don Algodon”,
a silver gelatin print, artist Rene Peña slyly alludes to who is considered desirable.
In this photo, he poses with an advertisement on his chest. The young white
woman in the ad has been chosen as the face of a Spanish clothing line. Together
with Peña’s the other two pictures, where contrast calls attention to the
whiteness of the objects of desire he poses with, the viewer is invited to
consider the relationship our culture attaches to whiteness and desirability.
There are
many other interesting ideas in this exhibit, and despite the modest size and
slightly underwhelming display, it is well worth seeing. Viewers will leave
with new perspectives on issues of desirability. Overall I was very impressed,
although it would have been even more powerful for me if the display had been
more commanding. I would recommend this exhibit to anyone interested in the
politics of desirability, photography, or contemporary international art.
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