Home Space: An Interactive Portrait

2004

Interactive Mixed Media Installation

When I set out to photograph my immigrant community (why, artists moving to Lowell, of course!) for the exhibition, I told several Lowell-based artist friends about the idea of photographing artists in their spaces, with their art, nude or partially nude. Each of them was not only enthusiastic about the idea, but had ideas for collaboration, as well.

Steve Syverson is a sculptor living in an artist loft who came to Lowell 3 years ago.
I photographed him in his space with his all-surrounding brick walls, and he used Photoshop to meld his portrait with one of his sculptures. We tried draping him with wet fabric to get the ‘sculpted’ look, but it was a bare-chested Steve that ended up sculpted by Photoshop.

Ted Lavash loves to draw the female nude, and he found time in his busy St. Patrick’s Day revels to come home to his Ayer Loft where he’s lived for 3 years. He sheltered himself in his drawings, and added a few touches while I photographed him.

Nadya Volicer invited me to photograph her at Evos Arts Institute in Lowell, where she was installing “Splash”, a large-scale sculpture made from her trademark recycled wood pieces. She wasn’t finished yet, and had several bags full of pieces, which she incited me to pour over her like splintery water. Brave woman.

Keith Wasserman is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and video artist who has lived in Lowell for 3 years. What originated as an idea ended up as my favorite piece in the show: As Keith said, “You had to photograph me nude to take a picture of my forehead?!”

In many of these images, I narrowed down the particular body feature that I recognized as belonging uniquely to this one person. How would I recognize them from across the room?

Why nude? By allowing themselves to be photographed unclothed, these artists initiated a sense of intimacy, with which came a sense of personal recognition, bravery, togetherness and solitude simultaneously. The installation includes cabinets, a chest of drawers, a foot stool… pieces of furniture that mean home to me.

I came to Lowell 2 years ago and have been a full-time photographer for 4 years. This is my first installation, and it’s been a challenge to make these 96 photographs make sense together in spatial relationships, and tell a story about each artist that is greater than the sum of their parts.

Many thanks to the folks who helped me both with my thought processes and the installation: Brian Moore, Meghan Gabriel, Keith Wasserman, Nadya Volicer, Steve Syverson, Jerry Beck