Exhibition
‘Salomania’ - Julia Colmenares & Zoe Simon
31 Mar 2017 – 9 Apr 2017
Event times
Wednesday to Friday, 12-6pm
Saturday, 4-11pm
Sunday, 12-7pm
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- 13 Pearson Street
- London
- E2 8JD
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Tube: Old Street
- Overground: Hoxton
‘Salomania’ refers to the 20th century stereotype of the Femme Fatale embodied in the film noir classics of early cinema
About
Both artists are concerned with finding visual narratives for female characters who are most usually seen as objects of pure fantasy, existing as a vessel for the viewer’s own desires and fantasies. Yet neither artist seeks to offer verdicts or judgements, but to query the gaze, how the image is viewed, and by whom: from a stance of control and power or submission, double identification or voyeurism, prompting the question whether female representations of women as sexual collude or conform to the masculine objectification of women or exert the other as sexually free, outside essentialism or a socially fabricated gender.
There is a unique collaboration at the heart of the exhibition with Zoe Simon taking on personas such as Lulu Goldman Deceased and Femme Cheval and Julia Colmenares depicting them in paint. Both are drawing inspiration from film noir and female celebrities, bunny girls and female/animal hybrids, acting as temporary escapism from Post Modern Identity seriousness and politics, and defying Peter Pinder’s assertion that ‘The woman artist should confine herself to painting “sweet, gracious and delightful representations of women…"'
As part of the exhibition the artists will be staging the following events:
Private View on Thursday 30th March 6.30 to 9.30
7pm: ‘Lulu Goldman Deceased Performs Live In The Mortuary!’ – Live Performance. Performance artist Zoe Simon will be raising the ghost of failed bunny girl Lulu Goldman Deceased…
Thursday 6th April
6pm ‘Masquerade’: An hour Monoprinting Workshop led by Julia Colmenares, using icons, superheroes, celebrities and artists as source material to explore masquerade and identity and how it topically suits our times. Images and material are supplied. Free entry.
7.45 pm: ‘Lulu Goldman Deceased Performs Live In The Mortuary!’
Saturday 8th April at 6.30pm : ‘How To Entertain Your Man’–Live Performance Performance artist Zoe Simon gets relationship advice from Blake The Dog…
7.30 – 8.30pm ‘Do female representations of women as sexual collude with the masculine objectification of women or do they exert women as sexually liberated and a socially constructed gender?’ A panel of female artists and writers will discuss this fascinating question and the issues it provokes.
9pm – ‘ Femmes On Film’: A series of digital films by performance artist Zoe Simon in which she adopts different personas, exploring the theme of masquerade