Exhibition Review: Beyond Appearances at Kunstraum
Marianna Rothen, T aller Than Me (from the series M aking it Real ), 2020 Archival pigment print with diary entry, Diptych 8 x 6 in & 17 x 17 in, Ed. 1/5 + 1 AP. Courtesy of the artist. Photography by Hernán Rivera. © Kunstraum LLC
By Micaela Bahn
Film theorist Laura Mulvey’s 1970 essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” is one of the cornerstones of a now extensive critical history that works to decenter the white male gaze in visual media. Mulvey coined the term “Male Gaze” which gave a name to the narrow scope with which women were depicted and questioned the perceived universality of this lens. While male subjectivity seems obvious in our current climate, at the time the notion was a radical one.
The group exhibition Beyond Appearances - Women Looking at Women at KunstraumLLC carries this history of looking relations into the 2020s. Curated by Alice Le Campion, the show puts theory into practice and offers viewers the opportunity to question cultural assumptions about gender representations. Recent works by Mona Kuhn, Alex McQuilkin, Regina Parra, and Marianna Rothen are placed in dialogue with one another to explore individual narratives and the female gaze. Rather than depart from or counter the established dominant male framework, Beyond Appearances foregrounds the construction of a distinctly feminine aesthetic.
Mona Kuhn, Bushes 05, 2018, Chromogenic metallic archival print, 20 x 15 in, Edition of 8. Courtesy of the artist & Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York. Photography by Hernán Rivera. © Kunstraum LLC
One of the first images that greets you as you enter the gallery is a solarized photograph of a nude woman, cropped from the bottom of her rib cage to just above her knee. Her figure, photographed by Kuhn, is a composite of elegant lines and metallic beauty. The arrangement of the body –– a slight pop of the hip – manages to reveal a level of interior character even within the crisp framing.
On an adjacent wall, more of Kuhn’s images of the female form are juxtaposed to solarized flowers and succulents. The rippling botanicals evoke notions of visual wonder and pleasure. The series is not desexualized but sidesteps objectification in favor of sensuality. This has been a big year for Mona Kuhn, whose work is being featured in another femme centered group show, Women. On. Women. at Galerie XII IN Los Angeles.
Marianna Rothen, V irginity (from the series M aking it Real ), 2020, Archival pigment print with
diary entry, Diptych: 8 x 6 in & 28 x 21 in, Ed. 1/5 + 1 AP. Courtesy of the artist. Photography by
Hernán Rivera. © Kunstraum LLC
In another photographic series, Marianna Rothen uses mannequins to explore the influences of, “heteronormative ideals and social psychological construct that influence idealized conceptions of romantic relationships during adolescence.” Diptych, “Virginity” is a self-portrait with a Ken-like mannequin. Ken stands as a picture of perfect masculinity, bathed in a soft light that traces the outline of his half-naked body. Partially concealed by a lace curtain, Rothen pulls suggestively on the hem of Ken’s towel. The deeply personal journal entry that accompanies the photograph stages a conversation on the development of queer sexualities in relation to our Barbie models.
Blanche, 2020, Oil and wax on paper, 29.9 x 22 in, each, Courtesy of the artist. Photography by Hernán Rivera. © Kunstraum LLC
Paintings by Regina Parra are also paired with text, as she investigates vulnerability as a trait associated with women. She questions and reimagines the possibilities of the female body in the series, “Blanche.” The fourth artist, Alex McQuilkin, utilizes film for a narrative around the aestheticization of female suffering in a two-channel video “DarkSpring.” The varied mediums each of these artists use provides the viewer with a constantly shifting lens with which to view the female experience
Kunstraum resembles a collective artist’s space more than the occasionally cool, impersonal galleries you find in Chelsea. The 1,000 square foot loft in Clinton Hill is both a gallery and a studio space, “born out of a necessity to create community and foster collaboration.” This spirit of collaboration is imbued in the exploration of the feminine gaze in Beyond Appearances.
Beyond Appearances is on view at Kunstraum through January 17th. You can read more about the exhibition and book your visit here.
