The
"Shrines to Fantasy" show was curated with minimal
direction,
allowing it to present as a large installation with surprising
twists and turns. The exhibition included a
room
installation by Karen Santry in which her
“Golden Girls” and hand-painted glamour queens danced across three
walls,
while an elegant Soho man, carrying a fiddle, pranced across another
with
his three dalmations.
Diane
Adzema paid homage to an Italian chapel that was
destroyed
in New York's Little Italy, to make way for a commercial building. The
installation
included artifacts and statuary from the chapel, some of which
were
suspended on wires from the ceiling. Adzema provided printed materials
to
visitors, which explained the story of the church's demise. Black and
white
photographs of the interior of the church, during the demolition, were
provided
by photographer, Ed Grazda. The installation was lit with candles that
burned
day and night.
A number of Ilene Astrahan's early works included her
Heironymous
Bosch-like painting “Sacred Bowl”, and a trompe l'oeil jigsaw
puzzle
of a woman's face. Alexander Gofayzen lined the walls
in a black gallery with photographs,
many
portraying the images of women camouflaged into
medieval
stone structures and onto railway tracks. One of Gofayzen's women
is
seated, her entire body comprised of tree bark -- she is the
tree. Paintings by Stego included a portrait of Paloma (meaning
dove)
Picasso in a trompe l'oeil setting with three other interpretations of
“dove”,
including a bar of soap, an ice-cream bar and the actual bird. Another
painting
depicted Lorena Bobbitt with a knife over her head and anatomical
illustrations
of the male genitalia. Individual artworks
included fish sporting feet and wings; seashells
that
stood up to six feet high; dolls with robot heads and
women
who appeared to be half human and half bird, preparing to take flight.
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