Liliana Porter

Liliana Porter, a New York-based artist of Argentinean origins, draws from 
her extensive collection of souvenirs, toys, functional knickknacks and 
figurines in the creation of her work. In photographs, video, and prints, 
Porter represents these figures in various scenarios that, with masterful
simplicity, distill life into its basic elements, at once playful and tragic. For 
this exhibition she will also create 3-D situations, using the actual
objects in live dialogue.

Porter typically places two or more objects together to create unexpec-
ted encounters. Decontextualized against white or black backgrounds, 
the objects shed their standard identities and acquire a poignant 
humanness. Minnie Mouse kisses Che Guevara's portrait on a plate, two 
choirboy candles sing with a plastic bluebird, and a toy soldier shoots at 
a fat piggy bank. These mass produced kitsch objects become characters
we empathize and identify with, actors that elicit and exude emotion in 
mini dramas about life, love, longing, and loss. In her dialogue of 
differences, she declassifies and subverts the visual order of things, 
reconstructing contexts to deconstruct meaning.