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MELANIE VOTE: THE LAP-TOP SERIES / September 30–October 30, 2005
“The
Lap-Top Series” by Melanie Vote, focuses on an unconscious immersion in
leisure and its formal consequences for narrating pose and gesture. In
requiring each of her subjects to view a film for the duration of the
sitting, she ironically subverts the authority of the artist, creating a
sympathetic and code-pendent scenario which allows her to read their
reactions to the films, which may include a range of pose and gesture
that is both mundane and portentous. She is then able to de-pict both
the outward appearance of the model and their state of mind. By placing
within the composition of the portrait an element of focus other than
the artist or some fourth wall, Vote exposes the innate susceptibility
of the model, ironically redirecting the role of the artist, while
directing us to recognize the tangent in deceptively simple images which
contain both appearance and essence.
“The
Lap-Top Series” by Melanie Vote, focuses on an unconscious immersion in
leisure and its formal consequences for narrating pose and gesture. In
requiring each of her subjects to view a film for the duration of the
sitting, she ironically subverts the authority of the artist, creating a
sympathetic and code-pendent scenario which allows her to read their
reactions to the films, which may include a range of pose and gesture
that is both mundane and portentous. She is then able to de-pict both
the outward appearance of the model and their state of mind. By placing
within the composition of the portrait an element of focus other than
the artist or some fourth wall, Vote exposes the innate susceptibility
of the model, ironically redirecting the role of the artist, while
directing us to recognize the tangent in deceptively simple images which
contain both appearance and essence.
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