open-PLAYER multichannel installation "The Empire Trilogy" by Heather Bennett
The Empire Trilogy, by Heather Bennett, at Luxe Gallery, 53 Stanton St, New York
Opening Reception Friday November 14th 2008 7-9pm
Exhibition dates: November 14th – December 23rd
Powered by open-PLAYER software, ” The Empire Trilogy” multichannel installation constitutes Heather Bennett’s latest body of work in time based media. Known for her cinematic large-scale photographs, this trilogy of videos centers around a lone woman, all of whom almost slyly encompass a panoply of reflecting fictions. The amalgamated ‘characters’ take substance from childhood fairytales, contemporary fashion, female genre roles and a healthy dose of nostalgia and somehow coalesce into a peaceful, almost quieting image. These are portraits of control, of mastery. “Holly Holy” is a collision of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and a bit of Eve, bathed in red velvet and monastically reading Faulkner. “Locks and Hocks” conflates Goldilocks and a restrained 50′s housewife, entombed in a sun-drenched, yellow kitchen listlessly stirring a pot of beans and hammocks. And “Babe” collapses male and female with a school girl, Paul Bunyan combo of metamorphosed blue plaid where our heroine dully wields a two-sides axe, knocking dirt from her boots, while swathed in one of the most sexualized articles of clothing in recent history…
