Lorna Simpson - PHOTOGRAPHS New York Friday, April 16, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

  • Literature

    Phaidon, Lorna Simpson, p. 55

  • Catalogue Essay

    Lorna Simpson’s body of work is characterized by the weaving of text with image to create narratives that hinder viewers from concluding immediate associations regarding issues of race, identity and gender. In Shoe Lover 3, the viewer is presented with three distinct yet connected visuals. The left image, of a black shoebox with no logo, arguably alludes to the fusing of color and object into a single entity, raising questions of race and objectification, while the addition of the caption “female attraction” introduces gender as an additional constituent. The center image, of a woman’s back, is cropped at the neck and at the hands, thereby attempting to remove two distinct markers of identity and race. The right image of studded heels, a signifier of gender and femininity, is likewise challenged with the caption “attract females,” which imbues the image with a predatory and primal undertone. The presence of the three visuals within the same work, however, is not to reach a conclusive interpretation. Rather, it points at the futility in reaching a single, universal truth in addressing polemical issues concerned with the construction of identity.

105

Shoe Lover 3

1992
Polaroid triptych with two engraved plexiglass plaques.
Each 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm).
number 3 from and edition of 4.

Estimate
$22,000 - 28,000 

Sold for $25,000

PHOTOGRAPHS

16 April 2010
New York