Label TextBlake’s work explores difficult concepts such as identity, race, and sexuality, and often uses playful and subversive imagery that can be linked to childhood. The artist works in a variety of media, but is best known for non-traditional sculptures including puppets and life-size suits such as Untitled, which, although not intended to be worn, have a strong affinity with costume and performance. The hood has what appears to be rabbit ears, which relate the work to images of bunnies Blake has used repeatedly throughout their work. Untitled physically resembles the male body, but is made of material associated with women’s hosiery. The dark nylon suggests a skin-like covering that would lend a surface coloring unrelated to the wearer’s actual identity. On several levels, Blake’s costume resists definition and enhances ambiguity.
Exhibition History"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997
"Outside the Frame: Performance and the Object," Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, Feb. 11 - May 1, 1994
"Stoney End," Matthew Marks Gallery, N. Y., Mar. 11 - Apr. 24, 1993
Published References"Dialogue: Arts in the Midwest," Columbus, OH, Mar./Apr. 1994, b/w cover ill., b/w ill. p.1
Invitation for "Stoney End," Matthew Marks Gallery, N. Y., 1993, b/w ill.
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.60, b/w ill. pp.60 & 61
Exhibition History"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997
"Outside the Frame: Performance and the Object," Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, Feb. 11 - May 1, 1994
"Stoney End," Matthew Marks Gallery, N. Y., Mar. 11 - Apr. 24, 1993
Published References"Dialogue: Arts in the Midwest," Columbus, OH, Mar./Apr. 1994, b/w cover ill., b/w ill. p.1
Invitation for "Stoney End," Matthew Marks Gallery, N. Y., 1993, b/w ill.
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.60, b/w ill. pp.60 & 61
DimensionsOverall: 78 1/2 × 25 × 14 in. (199.4 × 63.5 × 35.6 cm)
Accession Number 1993.11
Classificationssculpture
Copyright© Nayland Blake, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
Inscriptionsnone
ProvenanceArtist. (Matthew Marks Gallery, Inc., New York); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1993]
Collections
