| Self Censored exihibited the works of two artists that inhabited two separate
hemispheres, worked in different mediums and lived high contrast lives, yet shared
one very unusual and powerful act; both censored their own artwork in an act of
self preservation. While both of their artwork was damaged beyond recognition,
there can be no denying the power of the remaining material and the narration
that revealed the identity of the images.
As a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute, Erik Strickland returned to his
hometown of Copper Harbor, Michigan where he continued painting in a secluded
barn and worked at his familys local business. Ten months later he was discovered
with a can of capet adhesive in his hand and every canvas he ever painted glued
face to face. Narrated by his thirten year old brother Karl, one of the few people
to ever witness the completed paintings, the twenty two canvas's on display emerged
as vivid and often brutal portraits in the mind of the viewer.
What would you do if you opened your front door and found your husbands dismembered
body piled on your doorstep? As a field worker from a small hillside village outside
Cartagena, Columbia, Maria Cordova found herself asking this very question. Maria
borrowed an old medium format camera from a neighbor and photographed the remains
of her husband. So enraged by the injustices that surrounded her, Maria Cordova
set out to capture the images of abuse, torture, corruption and murder that she
had spent a lifetime in fear of. On assignment in Columbi for Outside magazine,
Seattle Photographer David Victor heard of Maria Cordova's work while passing
through Cartagena. The only American to witness her shocking black and white photographs,
David agreed to smuggle the pictures back to the United States, but when he returned
Maria was gone and her homemade studio was destroyed. Thirteen photographs were
scattered about her home, covered in what seemed to be black India ink. David
Victor gathered the sabotaged work and caught the first plane back to the states.
Recounting from the exposed peripheral details, David Victor narrates the work
that placed Maria Cordova's name on the local police departments extended missing
persons list.
This entire exhibit was created as a fiction. Both Erik Strickland and Maria
Cordova's identities as well as their work was completely designed, fabricated
and exhibited by Vital 5. Public reaction and the ability to separate fact from
fiction varied greatly. |
