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Liliana Porter
Forced Labor, 2008
wooden base, metal figurine
2 1/2 x 5 x 2 inches
Living (in) Animate
December 12, 2008—January 17, 2009
Established artist Liliana Porter and emerging Chicago-based photographer Liza Berkoff work’s both deal with aspects of the philosophical and the absurd. Both artists investigate the secret life of inanimate objects and those moments in life that make us question what is real. Their works both challenge and lure us into a world of make believe that questions are understanding of the absolute and artificial. Liliana Porter’s work playfully rebel’s against tradition, disrupts time and challenges our notions of reality. Using a wide range of media, Porter brings together the ridiculous with logical, creating bizarre situations that lure us unwittingly into the world of her idiosyncratic cast of characters. Drawing from an eclectic collection of figurines, knickknacks, toys, and souvenirs, Porter features these characters in unforeseen combinations and circumstances. The unique situations she invents, where distinct events occur simultaneously, or dissimilar protagonists interact, wittily invite political, philosophical, and existential interpretation.
Chicago photographer Liza Berkoff, in her first exhibition at the Carrie Secrist Gallery will be exhibiting photographs that show her passion and interest in the uncanny. Berkoff is interested in the peculiarity and the uniqueness of place and the incongruity that can occur in everyday life. Berkoff says about her work, “I am inspired by the way people manipulate their surroundings, I see this in the display case of a butcher shop, the sparse geometry of a construction site or a scrap of Astroturf left behind in a warehouse”. In Berkoff’s work the strange is examined; whether it is a decapitated Barbie found on the city streets or someone’s figurines lined up on Western Avenue as if ready to perform a play. Most of us are interested in those niches in life that make us take a second glance, that cause us to look up from our book, that make us question what we know; it is these instances that shine in Liza Berkoff’s photography.
Images
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Liliana Porter
To See Red, 2009
Acrylic and metal figurine (white suit)
14 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches -
Liliana Porter
Double Disguise, 2008
Collage and pencil drawing on paper
15 x 10 3/4 inches -
Liliana Porter
Polaroid, 2001
Mixed media
32 x 23 inches -
Liliana Porter
Green Hat, 2007
Duraflex mounted with UV Plexiglas
19 x 14 3/4 inches
Edition of five -
Liliana Porter
Forced Labor: weaver (blue III), 2008
Wooden shelf, blue fabric, small base & figurine
13 x 43 1/2 x 11 inches -
Liliana Porter
Painter (with white hat), 2009
Wooden base, metal figurine, pain on wall
3 x 3 x 2 inches -
Liliana Porter
Blue with Them, 2005
Duraflex mounted & laminated
40 x 31 inches -
Liliana Porter
Dog, 2004
Cibachrome
12 x 12 x 1 inches -
Liza Berkoff
AISLE OF THE DOLLS, 2008
C-print
28 x 42 inches -
Liza Berkoff
Curbside, 2006
C-print
28 x 42 Inches -
Liza Berkoff
Scalped, 2008
C-print
28 x 42 inches -
Liza Berkoff
Off Color, 2008
C-print
28 x 42 inches -
Liza Berkoff
Horses on 18th, 2008
C-print
28 x 42 inches