Restless pictures
Photography exhibition is sincere, mysterious
Jeanne Fronda Staff
“Sometimes I put ads in the paper. People call me, and then I pick a place, and sometimes a sweater or a jacket, and then we go and take a picture.” Affixed to a white wall in black vinyl letters, this statement explains Lornie and Kim and Cole and Daniel and George and Eric and Andrea and Heather and Marcie, Elaine Stocki’s photography exhibition currently on display at the Gallery of Student Art (GOSA).
The exhibit includes eight large, square, colour prints: seven are portraits of individuals and one is of a couple. Stocki amasses these images by taking photos of strangers. The strangers answered an ad searching for models to pose for a student’s class project (save for one print that is a portrait of someone Stocki works with).
A U of M Fine Arts student, Stocki has had her artwork displayed at GOSA, as well as at aceartinc., the Label Gallery and Outworks Gallery.
With Lornie and Kim and Cole and Daniel and George and Eric and Andrea and Heather and Marcie, Stocki has aimed to give birth to a place where the invisible is made visible. But she has also created a space where strangers, most of whom would not be considered traditional beauties in the Western sense of the phrase, can be viewed as works of art. We are presented with images of middle-aged and aging men, an overweight woman, a red-haired woman with slightly clenched teeth and a couple lying on a bed.
Once you set foot in the gallery, the first photo to command your attention is “Kim,” in which a woman, wearing only a sweater, panties and socks, stands on a bed, facing its headboard. Clearly overweight, the woman’s stretch marks on her plump thighs are inescapable and invite viewers to stare, almost judge. Although viewers can only see the back of her head and not her face, the tension and perhaps embarrassment of being observed in such a vulnerable way feels tangible.
Next to capture your attention is a portrait of a longhaired man. In “Cole,” we see a man wearing a white blanket. His long, stringy grey hair resting and flowing atop the blanket, he grasps and leans against the back of a chair. His eyes look off slightly to the side, as though he is unsure, trying to avoid the viewer.
A dominant component in Stocki’s photos is the sense of ambiguity. Most of the figures are defined, but we are never certain of their locations. You can see someone leaning against a railing but not the building to which it’s attached. You can see a man sitting on some grass but cannot discern if he’s in a city park or some large backyard. We are never sure what we’re looking at or if we’ve seen these settings before. The result of such indistinctness is photos that elicit feelings of tension in the viewer.
These photos are gently disquieting — a reflection that Stocki has reached her objective: to capture and transfer the nervousness or awkwardness felt when one stranger allows another to photograph him or her.
Ultimately, Stocki has produced a feeling of mystery and discomfort. We have been lured to view these citizens and questioned to open our minds to view these strangers — people who we might normally overlook or even avoid — with fresh eyes. Here, people and places are transformed to art in a sincere, frank style.
Lornie and Kim and Cole and Daniel and George and Eric and Andrea and Heather and Marcie runs until March 31 at the Gallery of Student Art, located at 105A University Centre. The gallery is open Monday to Friday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
