flesh-tone series #1
january 11-february 26, 2003
center on contemporary art, seattle, washington
october-november, 2003
portland center for the advancement of culture

listen to "the paintmixers" audio work, as heard on the PRI/WNYC program Studio 360. produced by dmae roberts. buy the cd.

each paint mixer was recorded on audio-tape without their knowledge for use in a sound installation as a part of this work. and each is remembered in a journal-style piece. the color-match process is intimate and each individual paint mixer quickly found a tender home in my memory. each mixer was presented with a different part of my body to match, and each reacted to the task with unique methods and personality.

james
left outer forearm, fred meyer on broadway, by scanning machine, dutch-boy flat, july 15, 2002, 2:46 pm. ROX 5/32 1/64/1/128, VIO 16/32 1/64, WHT 1oz 4/32 1/64 1/128 YEL 1oz 5/32 1/128. neutral base D572-09

james was my favorite, and my first. (the first are always the most memorable) james was a talker who seemed to maintain a belief that he was an expert in his field and that his expertise needed to be backed up with a bunch of fancy language. an elfish white man, he was adorable as he entertained and impressed his clients. he matched that yuppie blue perfectly. one woman asked him to match a ralph lauren color and james explained to her all about the "copyright infringement laws" that prevented him from making a habit of matching other companies colors, though he would do it just this once.

i asked him if he could match any color, since it seemed he really could. he said yes, and then i pointed to my skin. woman #2 stepped back, appalled. james stepped back, but then stepped up to the challenge. he said (and continued to repeat), "i've never done a flesh tone" which i liked, because it was the first time my skin was referred to as a flesh tone. the woman asked me "what are you painting?" as her brown-skinned daughter appeared from the aisles. i smiled at the girl whom she hugged tight to her as she said "isn't that fun?" or something like that. i don't think she meant it. james went to work. scanned my arm. it took two tries. when my paint was mixing, james asked me for my phone number, and then what i did for a living. here i struggled with the truth, i didn't want him to see through my gag. i answered and then he asked me as so many people do to paint something for him. which was disappointing, until he revealed that he wanted a reproduction of the starship voyager complete with its warp signature discharge streaming across the back wall of his entertainment room. then, i was in love.

 

skinned:

the first in this series of three shows seeks to not only insert the tangential discourse of race into the central sphere of the gallery through objects, but to transform this space by ascribing a race to the gallery itself.

by the loan of my skin.

the process began with the notion of "flesh-tone" which led to a curiosity about the interpretation of my skin color by individuals and computers involved in the process of mixing custom colors at local paint and hardware stores. i grew up going to hardware stores and have a love affair with the sensations that arise around tools, lumber and electrical supplies.

the gallery is painted with a custom color blend, mixed by a local hardware store to match my skin (left forearm). thus walking into the gallery becomes walking into my skin. several paintings that break-away from the installation present a range of body parts colors (arm, back, belly, breast, palm, thigh, face).

the show draws some of its dialogue from the desire of white people to touch my skin and compare to their own. it interrogates the exoticization of the skin and the exploitation of the bodies of people of color. it posits race itself as art, inviting offers to purchase it for its asking price while simultaneously questioning this very idea.

the work evokes figurative art and its many abstractions. there is no actual figure present, but piece by piece the viewer consumes the figure scrutinizing the flesh. having worked as a figure model, i am invested in interpreting the body through art. here i find the rumination on this essential element, that of the skin, the flesh, explores representation from a variety of angles, aesthetic and political, questioning the very creation and use of color in our society.

the paintings mimic clean, crisp, monotone, like those i find in galleries. yet they are created and presented with all of the "unpolished" style that comes from my identification as a self-taught junk-using conceptual artist committed to using whatever media best portrays my concepts. this work explores elements of salability while asserting itself as conceptual art that disrupts our notions of race, gender, art and commodification.

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