Promoting Hazy Privacy

R. and I used to have a great relationship. He and I would go out for lunches where he would teach me the basics of how best to get ahead in an investment bank without ruffling too many feathers and how to 'socialize' ideas and pitch them to individuals before presenting them publicly such that your audience were not hit with the ‘surprise element’ before corporate presentations. He was my boss for about three years until we parted ways. He was a great manager in my formative years and for this I will always be thankful to him. Of course, he had a strange, offbeat side to him that I could never really fathom. It seemed something like 'my emotion is held in check under this solid veneer of professionalism’ and it sometimes bothered me that I could not read him completely. I attributed this to eccentricities that are attendant upon individuals who are endowed with an above normal intelligence and wit. Recently, I met him at a lunch store in lower Manhattan and remember telling him how little he has changed in the intervening four years that we had not seen each other. I was happy to hear that his children were doing great and growing up fast. After the usual but genuine pleasantries, we enjoyed a great meal together while promising that we should meet up regularly thereafter.

I now know that I would not be meeting him anytime soon. I ran into a database recently that checks on the criminal profiles of United States residents. It is a free database that allows one to check into people’s backgrounds, type of crime committed and incarceration details. On running into this site, I was initially outraged that we can casually look up each others criminal histories using the services of a publicly accessible website. On the other hand, I was elated to find that this would be a new tool in quickly profiling that suspicious looking individual who might have moved into ones neighborhood.

Well, on a whim, I checked out my name and host of names that included professional acquaintances. All of the people that I decided to check were in the clear except for Mr. R. My previous boss, my good friend, dear Mr. R. (whose birthday, sex, height, weight, eye color and hair color matched exactly to the person I have known) turned out to be an individual with a startling and in my view – a despicable criminal record. He was incarcerated on the charges of marital assault and domestic battery in another state. From the physical details, the exact match of the name and a host of little details publicly provided, I know for sure that there cannot be another person who fits that exact same description (the statistical odds of such an instance is very, very low). I will now find it difficult to meet him for lunch or for that matter talk to him with a straight face. I am still unsure if databases like these are a violation of public trust that will further fray the already delicate strings that holds us tenuously together or a blessing in disguise for ferreting out the suspicious type. I indeed did rush to paint R. in a very unflattering way in my mind without knowing any details on what might have caused this apparently rational man to act this way, but the fact remains that it must have actually happened and this is what will stay in my mind…

A gallery visit that made me think

Marina Abramovic; Role Exchange; 1975; published in 1994; 2 black and white photographs with 1 letter press text panel. 3 AP's framed: 29 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches; framed text:10 1/4 x 7 1/4

Themed sims or simulations around a particular theme abound in Second Life at this point in time. They combine elements of art and roleplay. The participant will need to enter an environment where the participant will play the role of the character s(he) dons and then interact with the themed situation in an appropriate manner. I have not been into one, but I hear that they are a lot of fun.

Role playing has been around/functional since time immemorial. I am sure this was a evolutionary trait refined and developed to ensure that the right functional aspects of a personality are utilized efficiently at the right times to ensure our survival as a social species. Sometimes we don the roles unconsciously and sometimes of our own volition. While the former may be part of the everyday life we lead (roles such as mother, father, manager, husband, wife etc), the latter is indulged for the purposes of make-believe by people who would like to indulge and live out in their own private fantasies.

Artists, given their creative nature have experimented a lot with roleplay. Marcel Duchamp explored the possibilities with Rrose Sélavy in 1921. It was with a lot of hopes and expectation that I approached the exhibition at Sean Kelly yesterday to look at some of these artistic explorations (the exhibition winds down on August 03). Fortunately, I was not disappointed in the least. In fact I came away from the show thoroughly stimulated and made it a point to tell the gallery managers on the selection and groupings of the works included in this excellent exhibition.

Themed around a point in time when the performance artist Marina Abramovic (see above) exchanges her artist roles with a prostitute in Amsterdam in the mid 70's, the show does not disappoint. Abramovic strutted her wares at the prostitute’s booth for four hours while the real prostitute went to an opening reception of the real artist. The idea is both revelatory and exploratory.

Most of the pieces in this show are of a similar nature where artists are trying to explore the issues of identity and self through assuming other roles and genders (in some cases fictional identities). Among the greatest hits at this exhibition that I wholeheartedly urge you to attend are pictured below (the pictures have been ripped from the gallery website or from public websites):

The pictures below are but a minor selection from the 27 artists on display there. A fascinating exploration that will leave you thinking a little more deeply into the roles we play (and do not / ought not) over the courses of our everyday lives.

My only wish was they had included some paintings, but I am not complaining.

Douglas Gordon; Staying Out and Going Home; 2005; two Polaroid photographsframed: 8 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches (21.6 x 36.8 cm)

Yinka Shinibare; Dorian Gray; 2001; 11 black and white resin prints, 1 digital lambda print; each print: 30 x 37 1/2 inches, overall: 130 x 175 inches

Andy Warhol; Self Portrait in Drag; 1981; Polaroid photograph

Samuel Fosso; The liberated american woman of the 70's; 1997C-print on Aluminum; Framed 51 X 51 inches

Douglas Gordon; Monster in the Making; 1995; 6 minute color video

Gavin Turk; Bum; 1998; Wax mixed with resin and polyester; 65 X 27 X 27 inches