Laurel Nakadate: Fever Dreams at the Crystal Motel

Lucky Tiger #1, 2009 (4x6 in. type-c print and fingerprinting ink) © Laurel NakadateLaurel Nakadate (previously mentioned on the blog here) has some new photo and video work in an exhibition titled Fever Dreams at the Crystal Motel opening Thursday, May 7th and running through July 24th at Leslie Tonkonow. From the press release:

The exhibition features a new series of short videos projected or displayed on a monitor. In these works, ritualized exorcisms are performed by Nakadate and her cast of amateur actors. Locations shift from dingy, claustrophobic motel rooms to the majestic open spaces of the American West. There are ecstatic dances, woodland walks, train travels, and reluctant stripteases. Unwanted feelings and bad memories are cast away. The show also includes two groups of photographs: the Fever Dreams series, large images that Nakadate shot while making her videos; and the Lucky Tiger series, small snapshots in which she appears in suggestive poses inspired by 1950s-style cheesecake and camera-club photos. These snapshots were completed during a “performance” in which the artist and anonymous middle- aged men, enlisted via Craigslist.com, covered their hands with fingerprinting ink and touched the photographs together. Sitting in a circle, on the floor of one man’s living room, they passed the snapshots around like trading cards.