'SNLV' at Bell-Roberts Photographic Gallery
by Joyce Monson
Entering the feral universe of Jillian Lochner's solo exhibition, at Bell Robert's Photographic Gallery, I was reminded of the philosophy advocated by a dandyish friend of mine, who maintains that profanity is a perfectly acceptable form of expression, provided that one's words are well chosen and properly enunciated. In 'SNLV', Lochner treats her randy subject matter with technical precision and playfully naughty humour. A childlike candour is the basis of her creative impulse and the result is a show that is an impeccable visual enunciation of the otherwise unmentionable.
As a well-established commercial and fashion photographer, Lochner is clearly skilled in the subtleties of creating a mood and telling a pointed story in one frame. Here, the stories are sharp little comments on the dynamics of sex and sexual relationships, the nature of basic instincts, and the ambiguous beauty of human form and function. A series of self-portraits gives some insight into the complexity of the character behind the work. As the title somewhat cryptically cautions, this exhibition contains sex, nudity, language, violence - and viewer discretion is recommended.
In the companion photographs titled, Whole Man and Whole Woman (Thing With Three Holes), Lochner disassembles blow-up dolls and isolates key aspects of their anatomies to make short, emphatic statements on the relationship between the sexes at its most basic. Whole Man is represented by the doll's erect penis, floating, isolated in the centre of a stark white background, while Whole Woman (Thing With Three Holes) is likewise represented by floating disembodied genitals and face with open mouth. It's a cynical view of the sexes, perhaps, but expresses an attitude with some credence in certain shadowy corners of society.
Disembodied apertures and appendages also feature in the photographs Orgy One and Orgy Two. By illustrating the essential mechanical workings of an orgy using the plastic parts of blow-up dolls, the scene is simultaneously clinical and comical. The images are flat and the spare assemblage of twisted grasping parts, are a deadpan send-up of sexual obsession.
More dark humour lurks in a series of nine tightly framed portraits of women with bright, shiny, red lips poised, like blow-up dolls for penetration. The series is untitled, but the portraits are numbered consecutively one through nine. The blue cast of the photographs reinforces the shadowy sexual provocation of the pose and at the same time de-emphasises individual features and lends a uniformity to the series. The clear focus of these portraits are the shockingly red - and ready - series of open mouths. The individual is reduced to an anonymous part and a number. What starts as a wicked little tease, ends as a swift swipe at the conscious and unconscious social attitudes towards women.
Olfactory senses are explored in a duo of armpit close-ups, titled Sniff and Tease and then pushed to the limit in Intoxication 1 - 8, a series of portraits featuring male panty-sniffers.
The difficulty of the subject matter in the Intoxication series is again moderated by Lochner's skilful use of contradiction, ambiguity, sly humour and repetition. The series begins with a romantically misty shot of a forest. Upon inspection, the forest scene reveals itself as printed wallpaper. The subjects, men of varying ages, do not necessarily exude boy-next-door innocence, but they don't appear to be particularly lascivious characters either. Framed head and shoulders against the soft green and brown forest patterned wallpaper, each man sits holding the delicate swath of cloth to his face, eyes downcast or closed, with an expression of rapture. The object of their rapture - the musky panties - is artfully displayed in the series Musk 1 - 5.
The attraction/repulsion dichotomy aroused by the exhibition is further goaded by the intimate anatomical explorations of skin, hair, scrotum and semen in Lick, Touch, Banana 1 - 9 and Blue Movie (Final Scene). In these photographs, otherwise benign and innocuous textures and forms of physical existence are offered up for excruciatingly detailed examination. The photographs pass no judgement, but offer a surrealistic view of reality that challenges perceptions.
Insight into the complexity of the creative spirit behind this exhibition lies in the series of self-portraits. Here, various people re-enact aspects of Lochner's persona and significant scenes from her life, wearing her clothes and a cardboard mask of her face: Jillian distressed after an abortion; Jillian, the vegetarian, cheerfully sitting down to a meal of raw steak; Jillian the teenager sitting sullen in her bedroom; Jillian the blue-veined old woman resting her swollen feet on a pillow.
The portraits are a poignant, comic and candid expression of self-awareness that reveals the artist's vulnerability, sensitivity and tragicomic sense of humour. At the same time, the portraits reveal nothing; her visage is a cardboard mask and her clothes are costumes worn by stand-in actors in set-designed scenarios. Only her spirit exists in the work, fully present, yet fully removed, the omnipotent photographer, deftly revealing unmentionable truths with humour and sensitivity.
The exhibition is challenging, tightly executed and exhausting in the prolific scope and depth of expression. The subject matter may be a bit too challenging for some, no matter how impeccably enunciated, but Lochner's shrewd exploitation of the ambivalence between attraction and repulsion is compelling.
Opens: May 15
Closes: May 28
Bell-Roberts Art Gallery, 199 Loop Street, Cape Town
Tel: 021 422 1100
Fax: 021 423 3135
Email: suzette@bell-roberts.com
Website: www.bell-roberts.com
Hours: Mon - Fri 8.30am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm
Joyce Monson is an Art Criticism student in the History of Art Honours programme at the University of Cape Town.
