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| ABOUT TRaC |
Visual Arts TRaC Fall 2004
Sam Taylor-Wood at Matthew Marks When I walked into the Matthew Marks gallery and saw Ethan Hawke and Robert Downey Jr. in tears, I was taken aback, although maybe not for the reason Sam Taylor-Wood intended of her show 'Crying Men'. I stood surrounded by twenty eight photographs of Hollywood's A-list including Robin Williams and Jude Law, crying. The sight of these famous men grabbed me at first glance, mostly because they are famous. Yet after not-so-careful analysis, I realized that grab attention was all they did. Keeping it was another story. These movie stars were being exposed at their most vulnerable point, supposedly. Was it the thought of seeing the most untouchable and surreal members of our society with their guards down or was the scene of so many men crying simply atypical and jarring? Taylor-Wood's title seems to suggest that these are men just like any other men. But her use of actors and acting ruins any affect and simply suggests she was using the crowd she was most accustomed to or believed would get the most attention. Though the use of subjects was questionable, there is no doubt that Taylor-WoodÕs feminine touch to her photographs was an effective contrast. The emotion may have been forced, but the intimate settings and angles still created a feeling of closeness to the subjects no matter how distant they really were. I was still able to have a private, often awkward feeling, moment with these immortal men which did appeal to my guilty pleasure of celebrity gossip. This almost made up for the lack of believable vulnerability; almost. Self Portrait Suspended I 9VIII hangs on the wall in the next room comprising of eight photographs as part of another series of photographs is another section of the gallery of the artist suspended in air wearing only underwear and a tank top. I had read previously that this was to pull attention to the scar telling the viewer the story of Wood's battle with cancer yet I completely forgot, and was not reminded as I viewed the photographs. If a scar was there, it was hidden well. Her actions changed from what appeared to be steep dives to resurrections. Although impossible to know, her body is definitively suspended, and not falling. Most noticeable is her presence against the blank and spacious studio and her shadow on the shiny wooden floor. Her changing poses captured my attention yet my fascination by computer editing and interesting contortions was fleeting and I soon moved onto the third element of the exhibition, a video; Ascension. This piece brought us a man in a suit with a dove on his head tap-dancing over the body of a man laying down, possibly playing dead. The tap-dancer kept the upper portion of his body as still as possible as not to disturb the dove atop his head. The blank expression of the tap-dancer, led me to focus on the bird that continually fluttered and moved about as the man danced. I was curious to see if the dove would eventually fly off. Yet like the rest of the exhibit, I didn't care enough to stick around and find out.
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