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RFH 2010, Colgate News

Two Photo Shows Open at Picker

Sun, Apr 04, 2010

Two Photo Shows Open at Picker

The Picker Art Gallery at Colgate will present two photography exhibitions that challenge conventional views of gender roles and exotic cultures. Both shows open with a public reception on Monday, April 12, 5-7 pm.

"Linn Underhill: Of Someone and Something," showcases seven photographic series that won critical acclaim for investigating women's identities, social roles, and the process of aging. Underhill is an associate professor of art and art history at.

"Christina Zück: Defence Phase II Karachi" features 20 large color photographs of street scenes and casual encounters in Pakistan's biggest city. In empathetic images, the Berlin-based photographer probes possibilities of understanding.

Underhill's (in photo) show is the first retrospective of the artist's work and brings together portraits, self-portraits, object photography, and artist books created since the early 1990s. In her studio, Underhill takes stock of her life experiences by photographing objects she coveted as a child. Or she dresses up in drag, either emulating role models or mocking gender stereotypes. Underhill sometimes points the camera at her body to observe how it is aging and anticipates its dissolution. Starting with a personal quest connected to the artist's body, memory, or identity, the images quickly become communal.

Underhill's work has often been classified as "lesbian" or "feminist" art. Her work can be appreciated for advancing identity politics. In addition, this retrospective recognizes Underhill's images as beautiful, conceptually challenging, and unusual. It cherishes her imagination, energy, and good humor. The artist set an example by studying herself and by telling visual stories of someone and something that will resonate with many.

"Christina Zück: Defence Phase II Karachi" is a photographic project commissioned by the Academy of the Arts, Berlin and shown exclusively in this country by the Picker. For Zück, the camera is a learning tool. Aiming the lens at anonymous passers-by, she explores possibilities for understanding. Zück doesn't deny the limitations of her viewpoint, filtered by her own education and cultural background. She conversely makes the photographer's presence felt, reminding the viewer that this is Karachi seen through her, the artist's, eyes.

Zück tests the limits of empathy in photography at a time when belief in the possibility of understanding is shaken. The artist was on a first visit to Karachi in September 2001 where she received news of the terrorist attacks. Back home in Berlin, she learned about Karachi's role as a "hotbed" of Islamic terrorism. One of the masterminds of September 11 was arrested in 2002 in the same neighborhood in which Zück had stayed during her visit. In 2008, she went back to Karachi to explore, like a Baudelairean flâneur, what these changed conditions meant for the people of her host city. The title of the series, Defence Phase II, is derived from the Karachi neighborhood where she - and terrorist Ramzi bin al-Shib - had lodged.

Source: Colgate

 

 

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