Residual Reality

I've only been to one other exhibit in the Haas gallery last year, but the Residual Reality exhibit was by far my favorite of the two. Overall Heinecken's "Cybil Sheperd: Phone Sex" was the first and most memorable of his works to me. I think he was really making a statement about the attraction a photograph can hold. The fact that the guy holding a phone sex hotline pamphlet has his face cut out adds to the anonymity of his identity. I think it's just a strong and direct example of how everyone buys sex in one way or another because it sells. That's why I think the guy with his face cut out can stand for all of us. Images and advertisments in magazines can reach anyone, yet they are anonymous. Much like the anonymity of a phone hotline. You can't see who you're talking with yet some people pay good money for them. Why? I imagine that they are buying into the images the companies use for advertising.
It's a strange thought that pretty much everyone knows what Britney Spears or David Beckham looks like for example and yet they could not recognize us (nor could most other people if our faces were on a mag). Although Beckham is a great soccer player and Spears has talent a part about what sets them apart and makes them so interesting is their image. So I might be completely off but I think Heinecken was examining this realationship of viewer and image.

I was also very impressed by Patrick Nagatani's work. I examined "Nyorin Kannon" first and it appeared to be a four armed deity (?) perhaps. It appeared to be on top of a massive lotus flower, or what I assume to be one. I instantly recognized the eight spoked wheel. I believe it stands for the eightfold path of Buddhism, which I checked to make sure here... http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html

I spent some time wondering why certain parts weren't taped over though. You could read into it all sorts of ways but I think he wanted to focus your attention to those spots. For instance on his work "Miroku" I wondered why the right hand was not taped. So I figured I'd google it and see what came up. Images from the anime InuYasha were the first to pop up. I instantly recognized them because I had watched the show when I was younger. Miroku had been the name of a primary character on the show; he had had a cursed hole in his hand that when uncovered had the potential to comsume everything around him... inevitably himself. You can find info on the anime here...
http://www.inuyashaplus.com/characters/miroku.html

I also found that Miroku is another name for Maitreya Bodhisattva who is a phopecized Buddha that will appear sometime in the future. You can find more online here...
http://www.shingon.org/deities/jusanbutsu/miroku.html

So coincidence or not as far as the anime storyline goes I cannot be sure. But Nagatani's work did make me think. There's just so much meaning and so much that can be read into when you use some imagery...