exhibitions

for immediate release


“LUCID”
June 25th - July 23rd, 2005

Works by: Brian Moss, Elisabeth Bersin, Marianne Doran, Yvette Hubbard, Carol Nitze, Sheila Siemons
Opening reception: Saturday, June 25th, 2005 7 - 11PM

OVERTONES is pleased to present "LUCID" - a culmination of the third Artist-In-Residence Grant artist Brian Moss has completed for the City of Los Angeles' Department of Cultural Affairs. "LUCID" is a collaboration between Brian Moss and cancer patients and survivors from The Wellness Community Center, West Los Angeles: Elisabeth Bersin, Marianne Doran, Yvette Hubbard, Carol Nitze, Sheila Siemons and Phil Stern.

The goals of the residency were to teach participants to use pinhole photography for creative purposes, and as an aid in coping with the actual and psychological changes in self-image that accompany cancer treatment. To accomplish these goals, participants built pinhole cameras, and created self-portraits and images of the significant people and things in their lives.

This collaborative project is a role reversal for the photographers. Traditionally scrutinized as subjects by doctors and medical imaging devices, here the subjects instead become observers, creators and directors. In this way, the project addresses issues of control, which are very important for cancer patients and survivors. The practice of pinhole photography involves both taking control and letting go- because pinhole cameras have no view-finder or exposure controls, the results are never predictable. This strange mode of photography becomes an integral part of the project, because an understanding is established: just as in life, the outcome is not guaranteed, and chance is often a determining factor.

The exhibit features three different types of portraits: self-portraits and portraits of family, friends and surroundings made by the participants; traditional B+W portraits by Moss that show some of the participants in medical situations; and large color transparency portraits of participants directed by them, and shot by Moss with a pinhole camera inside a tent. These different types of images transcend both portraiture and self-portraiture by merging and juxtaposing these normally opposite roles. As directors of the collaborative portraits, the participants' role is very important. The setting is often a meditative or contemplative place with special significance for the subject in terms of their illness, treatment and healing process. An innovative display method for these images uses x-ray illuminators as lightboxes. Such images challenge the negative associations of medical imaging and instead suggest another way of looking at and thinking about the medical images upon which this community depends.

OVERTONES is a Los Angeles art venue that supports and promotes creative endeavors in all artistic disciplines, with emphasis on emerging artists, international collaboration and social responsibility. OVERTONES is dedicated to searching outside the confines of established art institutions and presenting work that has the potential to engage a wide range of audiences.

*For further information and images please contact the Director of Exhibitions, Elizabeta Betinski, at word@overtones.org or (310) 915. 0346

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