Close and Lost
Lauren Wilcox & Meg Wolensky
SEPTEMBER 2916
"Close and Lost" brings together artists Lauren Wilcox (Pittsburgh) and Meg Wolensky (Philadelphia) whose work both explores themes of intimacy and loss.
Wilcox's "Consumptive Passions" series creates a vision of the feminine through the build-up of layered images. By drawing on archived photos of "thinspiration", she explores forces of consumption as applied to the female body - digestion of food and of images of women's bodies. She also meditates on the consumptive nature of intimate relationships when they begin to take over a women's life.
Wolensky has collected her imagery for this series from her personal life, reflecting on a period of high stress and transition. The works in this show describe Wolensky's growing experiences of forming familial relationships with other queer women and reflect on a recent unraveling of a relationship. Working quickly with watercolor and snapshots, Wolensky weaves an intimate personal narrative that is unafraid to deny the audience resolution.
IN LAUREN WILCOX'S WORDS:
Works collected under the title "Consumptive Passions" reflect the potential dangers of obsessive closeness – consumption of or by the other – and the depersonalization of the female body or the self through obsession with consumption – wasting of the body of the self.
There are meditations on the dangers of allowing someone to come in contact with your soul, to have access to your body. At times that dangerous someone is a conflicting sense of self.
The overt reference being made in Consumptive Passions is to the source of much of the imagery and the emotional tone of the scenes as being derived from the online archives of thinspiration – imagery devoted to furthering and supporting the destructive and desperate behaviors of individuals deeply engaged by their eating disorders. The intensity of these images is evasive, and easily slips into the mundane every-day depersonalization of female persons evident in fashion and pornography. The three genres seem indivisible at times in their casual dismemberment of women, or any person who has consented to be viewed as female, on flickering screens or glossy pages.
These issues build the impressed narrative of danger and constriction that is the female image, the duality of power and vulnerability, adoration and resentment, pride and mortal danger that accompanies successful feminine desirability. Overarching themes of misogyny, external or internalized, packaged as “goals”, beauty and perfection alluding to dangerous codependent relationships with ritual and image or with abusive partners – partners in love or in sickness – and the eventual betrayal of these relationships to survive.
IN MEG WOLENSKY'S WORDS:
Pieces in this series of paintings and photographs reveal personal truths. They are often filled with comfortable unknowing as I work my way subconsciously to resolutions. I combine a variety of source materials including daily visual diary entries, photographs, and patches of observational painting. I pull narrative content across photography and watercolor to highlight patterns in my behavior, experiences, and dreams. This series was created parallel to a rapid period of transition in which I fell out of love, deepened sexual autonomy, and bonded with other queer women in my life as their relationships blossomed. This work is a direct and tunneling response to high-stress situations, joy, and moments of existential questioning.
Wilcox's "Consumptive Passions" series creates a vision of the feminine through the build-up of layered images. By drawing on archived photos of "thinspiration", she explores forces of consumption as applied to the female body - digestion of food and of images of women's bodies. She also meditates on the consumptive nature of intimate relationships when they begin to take over a women's life.
Wolensky has collected her imagery for this series from her personal life, reflecting on a period of high stress and transition. The works in this show describe Wolensky's growing experiences of forming familial relationships with other queer women and reflect on a recent unraveling of a relationship. Working quickly with watercolor and snapshots, Wolensky weaves an intimate personal narrative that is unafraid to deny the audience resolution.
IN LAUREN WILCOX'S WORDS:
Works collected under the title "Consumptive Passions" reflect the potential dangers of obsessive closeness – consumption of or by the other – and the depersonalization of the female body or the self through obsession with consumption – wasting of the body of the self.
There are meditations on the dangers of allowing someone to come in contact with your soul, to have access to your body. At times that dangerous someone is a conflicting sense of self.
The overt reference being made in Consumptive Passions is to the source of much of the imagery and the emotional tone of the scenes as being derived from the online archives of thinspiration – imagery devoted to furthering and supporting the destructive and desperate behaviors of individuals deeply engaged by their eating disorders. The intensity of these images is evasive, and easily slips into the mundane every-day depersonalization of female persons evident in fashion and pornography. The three genres seem indivisible at times in their casual dismemberment of women, or any person who has consented to be viewed as female, on flickering screens or glossy pages.
These issues build the impressed narrative of danger and constriction that is the female image, the duality of power and vulnerability, adoration and resentment, pride and mortal danger that accompanies successful feminine desirability. Overarching themes of misogyny, external or internalized, packaged as “goals”, beauty and perfection alluding to dangerous codependent relationships with ritual and image or with abusive partners – partners in love or in sickness – and the eventual betrayal of these relationships to survive.
IN MEG WOLENSKY'S WORDS:
Pieces in this series of paintings and photographs reveal personal truths. They are often filled with comfortable unknowing as I work my way subconsciously to resolutions. I combine a variety of source materials including daily visual diary entries, photographs, and patches of observational painting. I pull narrative content across photography and watercolor to highlight patterns in my behavior, experiences, and dreams. This series was created parallel to a rapid period of transition in which I fell out of love, deepened sexual autonomy, and bonded with other queer women in my life as their relationships blossomed. This work is a direct and tunneling response to high-stress situations, joy, and moments of existential questioning.
