Flashpoint Gallery is pleased to present Inside Mouth, Jackie Milad’s first solo show in Washington, DC. The exhibition features Milad’s spare, but lyrical line drawings, photographs and an interactive installation. Milad started the project by creating a series of drawings of bald, androgynous figures to investigate the subtlety and awkwardness of facial expressions. The baldness draws attention to the variety of expressions that each figure makes, while the grid format emphasizes Milad’s scientific approach to the work.
A photographic analog documents volunteers imitating the expressions that appear in the drawings. The artist asked the volunteers to wear a bald “wig” and directed their facial expressions to reflect the drawings. The volunteers reproduced the expressions in the same fashion as a musician reading a score.
Part art, part anthropology, Milad describes her work as a “reference library for gestural language, simultaneously unsettling, humorous, seductive and familiar.” During the opening reception, artists Lauren Bender, Chrissy Ferrera and Ric Royer will wear the same style bald “wigs” to imitate the facial expressions in Milad’s drawings, a live recreation of the process that resulted in the photographs. Milad explains, “both the drawings and performances are meant to heighten and exaggerate quotidian gestures and moments.”
Following the opening reception, Milad will have the bald “wigs” and mirrors installed in the gallery, inviting viewers to wear the wigs and imitate Milad’s taxonomy of facial expressions. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 6-8pm. Milad will give an artist talk on February 13, 2010 at 1pm in the Flashpoint Gallery.
ABOUT THE FLASHPOINT GALLERY PROGRAM
Flashpoint Gallery is dedicated to nurturing artists, expanding their visibility and encouraging dialogue between artists and arts patrons. As a nonprofit gallery, Flashpoint provides a special opportunity for artists and curators to present new media, site-specific installations, performance pieces and other experimental forms free from the constraints of commercial expectations. An advisory panel of noted artists and arts professionals oversees the programming for the gallery and provides mentorship and support to exhibiting artists. Cultural Development Corporation’s (CuDC) Visual Arts Program is made possible in part through a generous grant from Altria Group, Inc. and from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Flashpoint Gallery, a CuDC project, is generously supported by the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the MARPAT Foundation, the Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, and many other sponsors. Hotel Helix is Flashpoint’s 2009-2010 Hotel Partner. Barefoot Wine is Flashpoint’s 2009-2010 Wine Partner.
ABOUT FLASHPOINT
Flashpoint, a Cultural Development Corporation project, is a nonprofit, multi-disciplinary arts space dedicated to nurturing emerging artists and cultural organizations in order to build their professional capacity. Flashpoint provides services and training for cultural organizations to help strengthen their management capacity and offers exhibit and performance spaces that enable arts groups to focus on their artistic goals and expand their visibility. Flashpoint includes a contemporary art gallery, the 75-seat Mead Theatre Lab, the Coors Dance Studio and shared office space for arts organizations.
Jackie Milad: Inside Mouth
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 9, 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 13, 1pm
Exhibition: January 9 – February 13, 2009
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12-6 pm or by appointment
For more information: Call 202.315.1310 or visit flashpointdc.org
Flashpoint Gallery • 916 G Street, NW • Washington, DC 20001
A CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION PROJECT
General: 202.315.1305 Press: 202.315.1312 Fax: 202.315.1303
Email: [email protected]
