In Living Pictures, the settings - laundromat,
stadium, beach – become stages in which Moncaca Duncan and
Lara Odell perform still actions. In these motionless, durational
states, they become equal to their surroundings. The artists wear
matching outfits in distinct colors similar to elements of the
scene and place themselves in situations as if they are objects
in a framed composition. For example in Stadium, they assume the
color of the architectural railings beneath signage that reads
“Ladies” while in Behind the Autostore, they blend
in with the building. Like matching colors, stillness is a form
of camouflage. The buildings and objects remain still, and so
do they. Random elements such as the movement of natural light,
passersby and cars create a perceptual shift which alerts the
viewer to the passing of time. Influenced by nineteenth-century
tableaux vivants, Edward Hopper paintings, and Cindy Sherman’s
Untitled Film Stills, the scenes create a paradoxical contrast
of being both isolated from, and integrated within the space.
At some point a movement is instigated by one of them and they
locate themselves in a new space and then become still, again.
Periodic hibernation.
Monica Duncan is an interdisciplinary
artist and educator investigating our world through live performance,
print and video. Duncan received her BFA in 2002 from the School
of Art and Design, NYSCC at Alfred University with a concentration
in printmaking and video. Since graduating, she has assisted organizations
and artists at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, the
Experimental Print Center, Queens, NY, the Experimental Television
Center's International Summer Workshop, Owego NY and Arts Electronic.
Her still and time-based image work has been exhibited at the
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY; Centro de Desarrollo de
las Artes Visuales, Habana Viejo, Cuba; Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts, Richmond, VA; Little Theatre, Rochester, NY; Memphis Brooks
Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; LadyFest Ohio, Columbus OH; Atlanta
College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery;
Watertower, Louisville, KY; Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY; ZKM, Karlshrue,
Germany; LACMA, Los Angeles, CA.
Lara Odell’s work combines video, drawing
and performance. Her individual and collaborative projects explore
the failure of identity, so performance anxiety, the double and
camouflage are recurrent themes. Figures come to life in her animated
drawings, and performers remain still in her videos – a
drawing tells a story and a narrative in video form paints an
image. Odell's work has been exhibited in Novosibirsk, Russia;
Beijing, China; Habana Viejo, Cuba; London, New York, and Los
Angeles, among other places. She has art degrees from Alfred University,
SUNY Buffalo and University of California, Irvine.