Anthony Goicolea
Selected Photography
26th August - 20th September 2003
From 26th August 2003, Gow Langsford Gallery - Auckland will exhibit selected photographic work by New York based Anthony Goicolea.
Goicolea exhibited in 2002 at Auckland’s Artspace where large scale works presented “a digitally altered world, simultaneously humorous and horrific, endearing and perverse.” (Artspace text) Like American photographer Cindy Sherman, Goicolea uses self portraiture, but rather than stopping with one image, he instead clones himself “to create a society of carbon-copy selves, an army of little rascals, his own Village of the Damned.” (ibid)
Early in 2003 works by Goicolea were shown alongside photography by Australian Patricia Piccinini. Both explore issues surrounding genetic modification and cloning, using photography and digital manipulation to create challenging and thought provoking works.
For Goicolea scenes are inspired by childhood fantasies and memories, films and fairy tales. Works include Doubledare - the artist and clone in the snow with their moist tongues licking a metal frozen clothesline; Wheelbarrow - the artist tumbling through a picturesque landscape being pushed in a wheelbarrow by his clone; Rowboat - the artist and clone secretly beached in a rocky inlet as though caught in a moment; and Whisper - the artist and clone having an intimate yet strangely innocent moment amid a room of children’s stuffed toys.
These are not classically ‘nice’ images from a family album - rather they have an ability to unsettle the viewer with their references to child sexuality where characters are displayed masturbating, spitting, fondling and licking each other. This is made all the more powerful by the fact that all acts are being performed to or by clones of the artist himself.
Goicolea will exhibit at Gow Langsford Gallery - Sydney 2 - 21 October. The show will then travel to Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Photography. Later a selection of works will show at Wanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery as part of a touring Artspace exhibition. (dates to be confirmed)
Media Release, August 2003