Sexy Or Stupid?: Laurel Nakadate Photo Exhibit
Posted by: Deborah Findling
Filed in:
news
9:20AM, Thursday July 2nd 2009
Photographer and artist Laurel Nakadate is showcasing a pretty strange set of pictures in her new “Fever Dreams at the Crystal Motel” exhibition. Posing on trucks and in skeezy motel rooms in barely there bikinis and underwear was confusing enough, but then she decided to enlist middle aged men she found on Craigslist to smear their inky fingerprints all over the photos. She’s a Yale educated photographer, so I assume she must have had something, um, brilliant in mind when she launched this project, but I just can’t figure out what. Her work is all about the private moments, usually playing peeping Tom and snapping pics of shirtless middle aged men and topless rollerskating teens. I’m not sure why this series of random exorcism videos and bikini clad pictures comes together in exhibition form, but she definitely has people buzzing. What do you think, sexy or stupid? [Laurel Nakadate]
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Humble Bee
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 09:52 am: [report]
smert in the sense that she will get media attention for this, and stupid in that no one will respect this work. No one respectable would ever do this and actually think it was serious…
Humble Bee
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 09:56 am: [report]
haha I misspelled *smart, what a genius!
Joey Daytona
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 10:21 am: [report]
I liked the shadow pix, her legs and the heart made from her hands… the others were kinda tense, basis for a David Lynch short?
Raugiel
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 10:32 am: [report]
I am not particularly familiar with her work, but based on the article, allow me to speculate. Perhaps, if she is interested in private moments, she is trying to explore them in a different way. The photos are clearly posed, immiations of pin up shots and other fantasy photos. These are the sorts of photos that are hidden under beds and in locker by teen boys, or in the garage by adult men (think the greasy finger prints). Maybe she wants us to think about the private moments we have with photos, instead of showing private moments in her photos.
SlumberPartiesByRachel
wrote on July 4 2009 @ 07:27 pm: [report]
i was thinking on the same wave length as raugiel… i think it’s commentary on how masturbation has progressed from printed photographs, obviously shot with a vintage flair, to the modern-day craigslist posts. both the girl in the photo and the post writers are fantasies and untouchable, which is why their fingers grasp, but never obtain.
it could also be commentary on how sleazy craigslist has become… or how a crime scene is just waiting to happen… or showing how easy it is for a person to stalk you on craigslist.
i really like these photo series and think it’s a great statement on how objectified women have become (or are making themselves.)
Infamous
wrote on July 4 2009 @ 09:49 pm: [report]
Wait, I don’t get the craigslist reference in the photos?
Anyhow. I like the ones in the peach-colored room, with her face painted over. I think Raugiel is right on, with her wardrobe and pose choices. They feel intimate in a kind of creepy way.