Denver Art Log

#

Poltergeists @ Groundswell Gallery (Evan Isoline)

Perfect bodies chopped and layered, like onions or IDM.

The hollow, doll-like sexuality of fashion magazines. Flat, solid pastels; delicately rendered renaissance anatomy. The show is stylishly soulless and objectifies its subjects: plastic, bloodless bodies with no people inside. Most of the heads have been cropped just below the eyes but a few of the faces have been actively scratched out. Is objectification — the premise that people and bodies can be separated, and that there’s something to be gained by dealing with bodies separately — less troubling if it’s not erotic? If it’s cold, rather than hot?

Classic like Greek busts, without color or appendages.

I wrote “bloodless,” but there are actually leeches on the most intense piece in the room, which is black, shiny, and reminiscent of a clown. In other words: evil.