Continuing through March 26, 2016
Twelve arresting color photographs, each measuring 36 by 36 inches, by Kasumi Chow and Desiree Espada mark the occasion of the publication of a portfolio of fifty sets of the images, printed on a smaller scale and packaged in a handsome box with a laser etched edition plate on the lid. They are something of a stylistic throwback to the days of kodachrome and the vibrant colors found in the work of William Eggleston, with the exception that these stark images feature unreal spaces, objects and people that sometimes seem to float as they occupy center stage in an intense psychodrama.
In the frame we see everyday items poised on the verge of some balancing act against stark, single color backgrounds in pink, purple, blue, grey, yellow, gold and green. In “Toasted" a halo-like ring of marshmallows floats dead center, engulfed by flames that char their bubbling surfaces. This high anxiety image evokes danger and dream states more so than it does smores. Other photographs in this stellar body of work include disembodied arms, ponytails, tissue, cakes, balloons and vibrant roses, each a fitting expression of Freud’s “Das Unheimliche,” or “The Uncanny.”
