Skin Is a Language is an exhibit of skin-themed artworks at the Whitney Museum through May 21. The poster for the show is Catherine Opie's "Self-Portrait/Cutting," a photograph of the artist's back with two stick figures and a small house carved into it. The exhibit runs concurrently with the Biennial.
Like many subcultures gone pop, tattoos have crossed over into the fine art world and are showing up more and more in art and cultural institutions. Skin Is a Language, an exhibit on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, explores the way skin alternately functions as a metaphor, a disguise, or as personal expression, how it's a record of time passing, and how it becomes an integral part of identities. Pieces like Catherine Opies Self Portrait: Cutting (pictured) juxtaposes an idyllic scene (sunshine and people that look drawn by a child) with her own flesh as the medium. Other pieces are less literal like Félix González-Torres photographs of a sandy beach patterned by footprints, but all probe the questions raised by the art of tattoos.
susannah_breslin
I'm lost
June 2005
MAR 18, 2006 03:37 PM