There’s nothing more tiresome than arty photos of strippers. For diCorcia, that seems part of the draw: “I had to fight the idea of originality in doing this subject,” he said at an exhibition preview. He keeps dissecting photography — not by taking apart its form but by disassembling its concepts. Remove authenticity, stage fake documentary pictures, invent hollow decisive moments, shoot actual documentary photos but set the stage or screw with the technique so that it looks as if they’d been posed in a studio, dissect the photo essay, and, finally, be unoriginal. This exploration makes diCorcia’s work compelling, important even, but it doesn’t always make for satisfying pictures.
‘Philip-Lorca diCorcia’ | Institute Of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | Through September 3
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In a photograph taken in 1978, you see a kid staring blankly into an open refrigerator.
- Beyond dollars and square feet
When the Institute of Contemporary Art revealed specifics of the first 11 acquisitions for its permanent collection a month ago, I watched with particular interest.
- Peabody rising
Could the Peabody Essex Museum be the Boston area’s most exciting art museum right now?
- Promise deferred
Last December 10, the Institute of Contemporary Art moved to brand new digs on the South Boston waterfront, tripling its exhibition space in the process.
- The image of hypocrisy
The 8”-by-10” photograph was hard to miss.
- All dolled up
Misaki Kawai’s Space House is what Barbie’s Dream House would look like if Barbie weren’t such a stuck-up square plastic bimbo.
- Dullsville
I waited in a crowd for two hours before finally getting into Boston’s new Institute of Contemporary Art on opening day, December 10. Just then a mother rushed out the door, telling her husband and their four little girls, “They say another hour.”
- Busy busy
“If you pulled the cord and the chute didn’t open, how would you dance on the way down?”
- Bad-boy cool
“People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.”
- Thinking small
The collective of artists spread out through the museum and helped the ICA’s staff — scrubbing the lobby, counting visitors, standing guard, cleaning the café.
- When worlds collide
We humans are quick to anthropomorphize the non-human.
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Museum And Gallery
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