Feature Articles


February Issue 2002

SECCA in Winston-Salem, NC, Features Works by James Casebere, Mikki Blair, & William Wegman

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC, has an exciting 2002 exhibition schedule that includes Picture Show, a three-part exhibition based on the relationship of photography and cinematography. The first installment of Picture Show, on view through Apr.14, features the work of James Casebere. Art meets science in a site-based installation exploring the human body by the UNC-Greensboro's Assistant Professor of Art, Nikki Blair. Nikki Blair: After the Instrument will be on exhibition through Apr. 13. And, the Center welcomes William Wegman's dogs to its Main Gallery in Photo + Video + Drawing = William Wegman, on exhibit through Apr.12, 2002.

In the first installment of Picture Show,James Casebere creates tabletop-sized models of real and imagined architectural structures and then photographs the models. The presentation of the large-scale photographs as the art object demand that the viewer suspend his or her disbelief and experience the re-created images much as one would a dramatic film or stage set where an event or narrative has or is about to be played out. The architectural spaces, as re-presented to us in the photographs, are charged with meaning as the viewer negotiates between the staged photographic image and his or her assumptions that these appear to be actual places, as "real" as Jefferson's Monticello or as concrete as the walls of a prison cell, which Casebere himself has re-constructed in models.

The diversity and depth of SECCA's 2002 exhibition schedule continues with the site-based installation, Nikki Blair: After the Instrument. From the complexities of the bio-tech industry to cosmetic surgery and prosthetics, according to the Blair, we as a society have engaged in analyzing and re-structuring our bodies to the extent that scientific innovation will allow. His work follows this banal practice to its extreme end and suggests the bizarre consequences of a world where our bodies are fragmented and possibly no longer able to be reassembled.

Blair states, "The new works in this exhibition show human body parts in imaginative ways as if altered or conjoined by surgical instruments. As I magnify, dissect, or reassemble the human body, I strive to engage the viewer both physically and psychologically. I am interested by the ways society depicts the body as a commodity often dividing it into parts such as units of blood, tissue samples, organs and genes. In many instances, the holistic qualities of the body are compromised. In my sculptures I wish to depict stages of these dehumanizing processes when the body is no longer viewed in terms of a whole person."

SECCA unleashes a new year of show-stopping exhibitions by opening its galleries to the dogs. From Man Ray to Fay Ray and Batty, William Wegman's photographs of his beloved Weimaraners have brought him international attention.

In addition to his highly recognized canine Polaroids, Photo + Video + Drawing = William Wegman features close to thirty years of Wegman's work in other media such as video, drawing, and altering his own and found photographs and postcards. In conjunction with the exhibition, SECCA will present a selection of Wegman's videos including the United States premiere of his two most recent works, Reels 8 & 9.

With his appearances on Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, and Late Night with David Letterman, countless books, and numerous museum surveys, Wegman's offbeat approach to humor and banality has delighted millions of viewers. No other artist comes to mind in being able to communicate with a mass audience on such a broad level. According to art critic Peter Schjeldahl, "The subject matter is the whole wide world as it lodges in the imaginations of the children that none of us ever cease to be." Wegman makes art fun.

For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the gallery at 336/725-19904.

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