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"About Face"
The brown flecks in Travis LeRoy Southworth’s self-portrait I Retouch Myself (2007) resemble drops of blood floating on an almost all-white background. The reality is more disturbing: Southworth has removed everything from his visage except the blemishes, wrinkles and stray hairs that, as a professional retoucher, he eliminates from other people’s photos.
As he reduces his face to its flaws, rendering it unrecognizable, Southworth—like the other 11 artists in this smart, eclectic group show—makes us wonder what a face reveals about its owner. Not much, suggest two photos by Nikki S. Lee, who’s famous for infiltrating various subcultures. Lee uses makeup and clothing to transform herself into a hip-hop fan and an exotic dancer; though she’s looking at the camera, we know we’re not really seeing her. Her artifice contrasts with Noelle Mason’s vulnerability in the video Bob and Weave (2004). Gloves off, Mason boxes with a man who stands with his back to the camera. Whenever his body stops blocking our view, we see Mason’s face—protected by her arms, smiling, distressed and, finally, bloodied.
Though there are many lighthearted works on view, the faces engaged in violence or wildness—phenomena that, like Southworth’s wrinkles, won’t appear in a portrait—intrigue us most. The grotesque figure in Jason Robert Bell’s Mirror is his recurring character Kala the Sasquatch, whose snarling face is rendered in appropriately savage, messy brushstrokes. Other paintings, photos and a single sculpture (by Scott Fife) question how faces make us human, and if they make us unique. August Sander would approve—even though John Delk combines his dignified portraits of German people with snapshots of Amway reps.
