Curator / Bret Marion

Masquerade

Debra Baxter, Kristen Becker, Jana Brevick, Buddy Bunting, Helen Curtis, Chris Engman, Thom Heileson, Claire Johnson, Margie Livingston, Kiki MacInnis, Yuki Nakamura, Nicholas Nyland, Randy Wood, Samantha Scherer, Toi Sennhauser

September 2–26, 2004
Reception, Saturday, September 4th, 7–10pm

When an organization changes location, its identity is thrown into interrogation. Sometimes subtle, sometimes not.

Masquerade is SOIL's first exhibition in its new space in the Tashiro-Kaplan Building in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. The show is about artist's self-portraiture. SOIL artists were asked to produce what they felt constitutes a self-portrait. As most of the artists are not portraiture (self or other) artists in their typical practice, this can be read as another relocation. Masquerade will shed new light on the role of context, representation, and the desire to "know" oneself and others in the constant reassessment and evolution of identity.

Ingredients

The myth of Narcissus and Echo

A gallery

Artists’ interpretations of the genre: self-portrait

The art hanging about 8' to 10' from the floor, organized in two groups: the body (Narcissus) and the place (Echo)

Security cameras at the same level as the art

A security guard’s desk

A black and white security monitor, fed images from the cameras

A binder with the curator's essay, titles and prices of the work, and artists' resumes

A binder for visitors to register themselves and their feedback

A desk plate with the word security in reverse

A mirror on the wall behind the desk, reflecting the desk plate so it reads correctly

A press release about a show of self-portraits

Just Add Water

When Regina Hackett of the Seattle P-I visited Masquerade, she said that the gallery looked like it was braced for a flood. That flood invariably arrives when a moment has passed, where an experience transforms into a reflection.

Some of the ingredients were planned; others, a chemical reaction of sorts. Some people loved the show, some hated it, some both—which was Narcissus’ experience, I speculate.

—Bret Marion