Word: Intimacy
Definition: 1. the state of being intimate. 2. a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group. 3. a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc.: an intimacy with Japan. 4. an act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like: to allow the intimacy of using first names. 5. an amorously familiar act; liberty. 6. sexual intercourse. 7. the quality of being comfortable, warm, or familiar: the intimacy of the room. 8. privacy, esp. as suitable to the telling of a secret: in the intimacy of his studio.
Quote 1: “Not surprisingly, many of us admit our pets into the most intimate areas of our lives. We are not in the least embarrassed when a dog sees us in the shower or overhears an argument. In this, a companion animal provides an intimacy that exceeds any we may experience with virtually any other human beings, including our spouses and children, the intimacy is on par with that of mother and newborn infant, or of our own skins.”
Beck, Alan and Aaron Katcher. Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 1996.
Quote 2: “Living as we do in a society where physical intimacy between adults is strongly repressed, at least in public, pets provide us with a valuable and socially acceptable outlet for the expression of intimate behavior.”
Serpell, James. In the Company of Animals. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
_______________________________________________
Artist 1:
Artist Name: Sage Sohier
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For her series Almost Grown which deals with family, bonds, kinship and relations.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Sophie and Blair, Brookline, MA, 2006, photograph
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Esha and Nisha, Southborough, MA, 2007, photograph
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “I’m usually not a huge fan of straight forward portraiture, but Sage Sohier’s series Almost Grown manages to strike a resonant emotional chord for me in spite of its stark simplicity. The series is comprised of images depicting parents posing with their on-the-cusp-of-adulthood children. The majority of the images create a visual triangle of spectatorial gazing, where in one of the subjects stares at the camera (and therefore at us, the viewer), while the other model gazes almost longingly at their familial partner in the image.
This not only creates a visually dynamic image, it also creates a physically dynamic experience for the viewer, who immediately feels personally involved in the obvious emotional connectivity taking place.
These images explore both the unbreakable connections between family members, and the necessity to at some point, and to a certain degree, sever those connections.”
Bibliography of Review: http://gaycondo.com jon: sage sogier’s “almost grown”. 23 August 2008.
Artist 2:
Artist Name: Phillip Toledano
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For his book, Days With My Father. A poignant, emotionally charged and genuine book on a father-son relationship.
Image 1 of Artwork-
Title & dimensions unknown, taken between 2006-2009, photograph
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Title & dimensions unknown, taken between 2006-2009, photograph
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “To a very large extent, the value of a portrait is determined by its emotional contents: A photo of a person that moves us - in whatever way - has much more of an impact on us than one that leaves us cold. This aspect of portraiture is especially important for images of a photographer’s immediate family, where the artist’s task is to produce photographs that take the emotional qualities s/he knows very (often too) well and to share them with the viewers: The artist has to detach her/himself to some extent to avoid falling into the trap of sentimentality (or outright kitsch), while s/he can’t allow her/himself to become too detached.
If I remember the conversations with him correctly, Phil Toledano never set out to produce the body of work that became Days With My Father consciously; but that still doesn’t explain how he managed to produce a body of work that is so genuinely moving.
Ultimately, we might not even really need to know how he did it. There is something to be gained from not knowing everything, from keeping a little mystery here and there. What’s life without those mysteries?
What does matter is that the work is now available in book form, as an unassuming little book whose size and design mirrors the intimacy of the father-son relationship portrayed inside its pages. This needed to be a small book, something you can hold and handle easily, something inviting, something that despite its contents does not come across as too precious to be looked at over and over again. And you will look at it over and over again.
Days With My Father is the most poignant and moving book about a father-son relationship one could imagine. A true gem of a book.”
Bibliography of Review: Colberg, Joerg. Conscientious.com Review: Days With My Father by Phil Toledano. 4 June 2010.
Artist 3:
Artist Name: Niki Grangruth
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For the New Madonnas series for the exploration of mother and children relationship. It explores attachment, dependence and intimacy.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Soon After the Birth, 2009, photograph, dimensions unknown
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Swaddling, 2009, photograph, dimensions unknown
THE NEW MADONNAS Artist Statement: This body of work explores the complex relationships between mothers and their children. These relationships are based on a series of emotional and physical juxtapositions – simultaneous connection and separation, intimacy and disengagement, reliance and independence, idealization and reality. I photograph middle class, American families in an examination of the tension between a historically constructed maternal ideal and the social reality of motherhood. I draw inspiration from traditional representations of the mother and child, specifically Madonna and Child imagery.
I use the home as a stage for domestic melodrama, constructing scenes that combine fictitious allegory and metaphor, historical maternal iconography, and observed events within the home. In combining traditional ideals and contemporary realities, I investigate the pervasiveness of maternal idealization, and the complexities and anxieties it creates for contemporary mothers.
Bibliography of Review: Grangruth, Niki. http://www.nikigrangruth.com/madonnasstatement.html
Artist 4:
Artist Name: Doug DuBois
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For his Family Photos series. He explores what it means to be subject to personal relationships as well as the stress and complexity of family relations.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Family Photos, 1984-1992, photograph, dimensions unknown
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Family Photos, 1999-2006, photograph, dimensions unknown
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “Doug DuBois takes us into his own family's home to ponder the alienation and intimacy that prevails through a series of powerful portraits of his parents, siblings, nephew, as well as still-lifes and interior scenes. The occasional photograph taken outside the family domain heightens the sense of enclosure and of something inexorable. DuBois is the sincere but unseen seer, and it is of course his absence/presence that puts (perhaps at some personal risk) the private realm and the bonds of affection under such intense scrutiny.
DuBois does not chronicle family history nor record the rituals of family life, the holidays and birthdays and so forth. To be sure, we catch a glimpse of a Christmas past, but we only see the decorations before the wreckage and after. Each photograph in the series is its own, and the course of events is not so much what concerns DuBois, as the unfolding flow of discrete mundane moments, the fleeting gestures, and the oblique vantage points - in the way which we spend most all our days and nights.”
Bibliography of Review: Higher Pictures. Doug DuBois: All the Days and Nights. 19, October, 2009.
Artist 5:
Artist Name: Justine Reyes
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For her Home, Away From Home series. I like this work for the domestic comfort, the idea of home and family and the complexity of relationships. I really liked the idea of recreating a piece of home where we go.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Al with Eye Patch, photograph, dimensions and year unknown
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Late Night Conversation, photograph, dimensions and year unknown
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: 
Bibliography of Review: Reyes, Justine. http://justinereyes.com/ Home, Away From Home.
Artist 6:
Artist Name: Diana Schmertz
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: I love these images for their ability to convey closeness, the human condition, emotion, and empathy.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
They Are Each Other For A While, oil on canvas, 48x48 inches, 2010
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Without Intention, oil on canvas, 36x30 inches, 2010
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: Composed primarily of close-up images of physical contact between people, my paintings are an investigation of the self and the other. Each work depicts somatic sensation, an experience of physical sentiment in a pre-verbal, visceral space. The fragmentation of these moments of contact lends ambiguity to both the pictorial space of the composition and to the boundary between the people portrayed. The application of paint is sensual conveying an intimacy rooted in connectedness and the interrelation of beings.
I use white (empty) space and geometric elements juxtaposed with organic imagery to simultaneously represent different approaches in exploring the distinction between the self and the other. In works such as “The Space Between, (wall piece),” I cover the entire surface of the wall with a grid of one-inch circular paintings of moments of physical contact. This compositional structure forces the viewer to make a choice. From afar the work appears to be a unit that references objectivity via mathematical order and scientific observation. At close range the viewer engages at a highly intimate and personal level. The inability to interact with the work from both perspectives in the same time and space echoes our struggle to understand human connections within the personal limitations imposed by the constraints of our physical being.
Bibliography of Review: Schmertz, Diana. http://www.dianaschmertz.com/statement.html 2010
Artist 7:
Artist Name: Allan King
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For his documentary A Married Couple. It presents an intimate portrait of a marriage in conflict and the emotional devastation and loneliness their relationship has created.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Photograph for promotion of film, 1969
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Movie still from A Married Couple, 1969
To view trailer: http://www.allankingfilms.com/couple.html
To view excerpt: http://www.documentaryclass.com/2008/05/married-couple.html
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “After six years of marriage, the point of all the arguments really is: Who is going to dominate whom? "I'm completely bewildered," Billy says toward the end of the film. "It seems that every time we get on some plateau of understanding, the next minute we are kicking and screaming."
Throughout "A Married Couple," which opened yesterday at the Kips Bay, it's perfectly apparent that Billy and Antoinette are playing to the camera, in moments of anger, intimacy and even boredom. It may be no accident that both of them were, at earlier stages in their lives, aspiring actors who never made it. The unreality prompted by the camera's presence is acknowledged in the film, which then proceeds to pass off this conscious performance as some kind of meta-truth that is neither fact nor fiction.
What King ultimately proves, I think, is that something that is neither fact nor fiction is less meta-truth than sophisticated sideshow. As I've never believed there is a novel in everybody, nor even a tape-recorded book, I now am convinced there are probably very few people worthy of being the subjects of an actuality drama. Better than any other instrument, perhaps, the documentary camera can capture the sense and feeling of events, of social climates, and even of people in public crisis, but meaningful private drama must always elude it since the camera is stopped by what Arthur Miller once called "the wall of the skin."
Bibliography of Review: Canby, Vincent. A Married Couple Screen: Elusive Reality: ‘A Married Couple,’ by Allan King, Opens. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE3D81E39EE34BC4B53DFB466838B669EDE 3 February 1970.
Artist 8:
Artist Name: Colleen Rudolf
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For her Connect series. She constructs an interactive installation where the audience is encouraged to participate and be a determining factor in the work’s life. Consisting predominantly of sculptural objects, the included pieces attempt to explore various methods of communication. Using the animal kingdom and modern technology as inspiration, the viewer is challenged to consider exactly what it means to “connect” to another entity.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Inguinal Sniff, 2010
Image 2 of Artwork- 
A Moment (front), and Cellular Phones on the back pedestal, 2010, sculpture
Image 3 of Artwork- 
Elephant Feet, 2010, sculpture
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “Visitors to Colleen Rudolf‘s exhibit “CON · NECT [KUH · NEKT]” at the Grizzly Grizzly Gallery might feel as though they’ve stepped into a Please Touch Museum for the thinking adult. Rudolf is both perceptive and playful in contrasting animals’ straightforward and instinctual manner of relating to each other with humans’ inability to give our full attention to any single interaction. Rudolf believes that humans’ lack of focus is a recent development, due to the barrage of technological communication to which we are increasingly exposed.
The theme of Rudolf’s exhibit is illustrated most clearly in a series of three works on pedestals. On one pedestal is A Moment, a delicately wrought sculpture of two penguins facing each other. On the pedestal on the opposite end is Cellular Phones, two cell phones standing so close together that they, too, seem to be huddled in intimacy.
All of the show’s interactive works require two participants, and therefore facilitate the direct interaction Rudolf admires. My favorite of the interactive pieces, Elephant Feet, gives participants a chance to literally step inside an animal’s “shoes.” While one person steps up and down while wearing a pair of rubber-and-Styrofoam elephant boots, the person wearing the other pair feels vibrations on the soles of their feet. This mimics an actual method of communication among elephants based on seismic vibration.
In a final allusion to humans’ reliance on multiple forms of communication, Rudolf has provided laminated sheets of instructions at the gallery’s entrance. While some of the instructions are helpful, most are tongue-in-cheek. Take, for example, the diagrams explaining that one should look at the sculptures rather than swatting them off their pedestals. Rudolf’s point is clear: Are we so unused to direct, intuitive interaction that we need a set of instructions to understand works of art?”
Bibliography of Review: Kantor, Becca. Shapes and Animals at Tiger and Grizzly. Theartblog.org 11 April 2010.
Artist 9:
Artist Name: Alec Soth
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: For his Niagara series. He examines love, happiness, expectations, disappointment and relationships in this body of work.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
Michele and James 2004, photograph, dimensions unknown
Image 2 of Artwork- 
Candlelight Hotel 2004, photograph, dimensions unknown
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “Soth’s photography is firmly rooted in the tradition of Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and Stephen Shore. His depiction of the everyday confronts the ideals romanticized by American society; independence, freedom, religious devotion and individual expression. Through his 8 x 10 camera lens, Soth captures the extraordinary by exposing and utilizing the vernacular of the ordinary.
NIAGARA both reinforces and undermines modern myths, focusing on true love, sexuality and the promise of “happily ever after.” Throughout NIAGARA Soth emphasizes various motifs associated with romance, ranging from newlywed bliss to heart-broken agony, the innocent and sacred to the perverse. His subjects include coupled nudes, individual and familial portraits, hand-written letters, motels and other staples of love and love lost in all its manifestations.”
Bibliography of Review: Gagosian Gallery. Alec Soth: Niagara. 21 January 2006.
Artist 10:
Artist Name: Marina Abramović
Paragraph Explanation of Reason for Choosing this artist: She gives the audience the ability to participate one on one with her in her work, which allows for a more personal and intimate experience.
Image 1 of Artwork- 
The Artist Is Present, performance, 2010
Image 2 of Artwork- 
The Artist Is Present, performance, 2010
http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/96/567
Outside Review of Artwork/Interview: “This performance retrospective traces the prolific career of Marina Abramović with approximately fifty works spanning over four decades of her early interventions and sound pieces, video works, installations, photographs, solo performances, and collaborative performances made with Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen). In an endeavor to transmit the presence of the artist and make her historical performances accessible to a larger audience, the exhibition includes the first live re-performances of Abramović’s works by other people ever to be undertaken in a museum setting. In addition, a new, original work performed by Abramović will mark the longest duration of time that she has performed a single solo piece. (Please note: Abramović will not perform during MoMA Nights.) All performances, one of which involves viewer participation, will take place throughout the entire duration of the exhibition, starting before the Museum opens each day and continuing until after it closes, to allow visitors to experience the timelessness of the works. A chronological installation of Abramović’s work will be included in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery on the sixth floor of the Museum, revealing different modes of representing, documenting, and exhibiting her ephemeral, time-based, and media-based works. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue that includes an audio recording of the artist’s voice guiding the reader through the publication.”
Bibliography of Review: Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/965 14 March, 2010.
