Cindy SHERMAN & Vanessa BEECROFT: Her Bodies

Arario Gallery presents "Her Bodies: Cindy SHERMAN and Vanessa BEECROFT," from September 1st to November 21st, an exhibition whose theme is women's bodies the ways that society looks at them.

Cindy SHERMAN, one of the most prominent contemporary artists, has been photographing herself as different characters disguised in a variety of make-ups, wigs, and costumes since the mid 1970s. Some have assumed that her choices of roles are direct appropriations of images from movies, TV, magazines, and even art. However, there is none of her works having a particular reference. Rather, SHERMAN, by composing photos of women that we feel we have seen elsewhere, points out stereotypes and makes us to fantasize about their personal lives beyond the images on her photos. In more than 400 works, including the series "Untitled Film Stills," "History Portraits," "Fashion," and "Clowns," SHERMAN has sought to overcome the limits of images of women that our male-dominated society's value system has distorted, making her one of the most famous and important artists in contemporary art. Arario Gallery presents 35 of SHERMAN's works, including photos from her earliest series, "Murder Mystery People," to her latest series, "Clowns" -- an opportunity for Koreans to get a good taste of SHERMAN's oeuvre in one space.

Vanessa BEECROFT has also established herself as an important contemporary artist, in more than 50 live performances since 1993, the year she discovered that live models as artworks interested her more than the drawings she drew from them. Her work involves naked or scantily clad groups of women, each of whose bodies brings a plastic quality to the entire ensemble that evokes both painting and sculpture. During the hours-long performances, the models, often fully adorned with identical outfits of body makeup, wigs, high heels, brassieres and panties, get more and more tired and begin to squat or lie down. As their bodies slowly pass from order to chaos, they gradually become bodies without disguise, loose their "to-be-looked-at-ness," and shut down the spectator's visual pleasure. This is the strategic essence of the performance, the transition from disguised nudity to truthful nakedness.

Arario Gallery is featuring around twenty photographs and a video work documenting her performance, including "VB47," "VB45," "VB48," and "VB52," and one of her special projects, "The Sister Calendar," in which the artist's stepsister is the model. Arario is pleased to be the first to present a Beecroft performance in Korea, albeit a videotaped one. Although the artist, for personal reasons, was unable to organize a live performance, this is perhaps for the best, since one wonders if Korea is ready for one. As for the presentation of the video "VB 48," Arario Gallery is already bracing itself for a certain tumult.

Cindy SHERMAN constantly presents her own disguised body playing a variety of women's roles and characters. Vanessa BEECROFT, on the other hand, creates performances that, through the passage of time, change female nude models meant to be seen into humans exposed to their own physical tedium and pain. On behalf of the gallery, I am pleased to present "Her Bodies: Cindy SHERMAN and Vanessa BEECROFT" with the hope that you will appreciate the 55 works of these two artists and see them not just for their art images, but for the stories contained in them.