MANJARI SHARMA: Show & Tell

from The Shower Series
Photograph (c) Manjari Sharma/All Rights Reserved

from The Shower Series
Photograph (c) Manjari Sharma/All Rights Reserved

from The Shower Series
Photograph (c) Manjari Sharma/All Rights Reserved

from The Shower Series
Photograph (c) Manjari Sharma/All Rights Reserved

from The Water Series
Photograph (c) Manjari Sharma/All Rights Reserved

"For the last few months I have been inviting people to visit my apartment and allow me to photograph them in a very intimate space; my bathroom. I have also been inviting them to take a shower as I continue to shoot them. I soon came to the observation that warm water running over my subjects bodies often relieved them of any unnerving awkwardness the camera brought about. Once they were relaxed, the bathroom, formerly a beauty parlour, now became a confessional and I the hair dresser. Many of my subjects shared intimate details of their life with me and every new person in the shower became a brand new allegory."

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I was first introduced to Manjari Sharma by Mary Virginia Swanson, at MVS's inspiring lecture at ASMP/NY last fall. I loved Manjari's "Shower Series" and also the Portfolio, Water and India series on her website. Sharma moved to the U.S. from India in 2001 to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, then moved back to India to travel and photograph. She then moved to NYC in 2007, where she's been shooting for AOL, Penguin Books, and others, as well as exhibiting her personal work. Manjari has been selected to present her portfolio for the prestigious Review Santa Fe 2010.

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May 18: Show & Tell: Photographers Salon. Manjari Sharma will present "The Shower Series". Dot Editions, 119 8th St, Park Slope Brooklyn 6-9 pm.

May 21-23: San Francisco Fine Art Fair, Richard Levy Gallery, booth #11/12

June 4: Review Santa Fe Portfolio Viewing. An evening open to the public for free to view the work of all 100 photographers selected for Review Santa Fe.

MIKE + DOUG STARN: Big Bambú

Photograph (c) Mike + Doug Starn /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Mike + Doug Starn /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Mike + Doug Starn /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Mike + Doug Starn /All Rights Reserved

Big Bambú is connotative of an autonomous, spontaneous, self-governing, disorganized network responding to itself to better navigate the environment. “It represents me- in that I am who I was, and, I am completely different than I was when I was a little boy.” – Doug Starn

"In September 2008, the Starns took over the former Tallix Foundry in Beacon, New York (50 foot high ceilings by 320-foot long by 65 foot wide), and the construction of Big Bambú immediately started. As of November 15th, more than 2,000 bamboo poles have been assembled creating an extraordinary intricate mental and physical network system

This artwork, in the realm of architecture and performance, starts as a massive tower created from lashed together bamboo poles and brings into space representations of complexity and chaos. At its pinnacle, the continually evolving architecture being built from within (no outside scaffolding or support) will cantilever out as far as the bamboo poles network allows, and then will bridge down to the floor. At this point the first tower will be dismantled pole by pole and carried through the structure and down to create another monumental tower and then on again, walking down the 320 feet space, almost like a Slinky and then back again. Big Bambú will evolve through the continuous rebuilding and rethinking of the structure at all times.

The Starns are directing 8 to 15 rock climbers at a time, who are assembling the structure’s vernacular network in an ongoing action. Big Bambú is consistent with the idea of a self-healing organism; within this “fabric” of bamboo pole network, the artists expect that some poles will stress and fail, but that the structure (the bamboo poles are fibrous and flexible unlike wooden boards that crack and break apart) will maintain some integrity. The tower represents the concepts of self-organization, adaptation and the interconnectedness of all things." ...from starnstudio.com

DOUG AND MIKE STARN
Exhibition February 12-March 8 at THE BALDWIN GALLERY, Aspen