Penetrating Cuts

Penetrating Cuts was initially produced specifically for an exhibition at Gallery Gowoon in South Korea. The installation consists of a row of twelve large 44" x 12' physically altered digital pigment prints which have been suspended from a simple tension cable system running from the back wall to the front of the exhibition space. This system has been altered and designed for several other exhibition spaces, including galleries in Sweden, New York, and, most recently, at the Kirkland Arts Center.

Installed back-to-back, light emphasizes hand-cut holes and defines images on both sides. As the viewer enters the space, they face the totemic monumentality of the cut-out images.

Using the historical archive as a point of departure, this exploration was spearheaded by our collaborative investigation into the historic application and use of vintage photographs. We work side-by-side on topics ranging from domestic motifs to immigration and identity politics. For this work, we have created large-scale prints using hundreds of vintage photographs found in thrift stores and antique shops, as well as personal snapshots collected over 24 years. These photographs metaphorically become historical evidence of our own lost identity. Social historian Judith Gutman expressed that “photographs may be our most perfect cultural artifact.” We are interested in this notion of artifact/evidence not as a means of looking at the past, but as an expression of the present day.

Using collage/montage and photo scanning to speak metaphorically about the social construction of identity, these prints invite the viewer to think about their own construction by psychologically projecting themselves into a sea of seemingly familiar snapshots. Empty faces/voids become anyone and everyone.