Photography has the power to lure viewers into spaces and ideas that they might not expect. Some images that at first glance appear ordinary can, with closer and longer inspection, reveal themselves to be ominous, outrageous, or sublime. Patricia Voulgaris and Whitney Hubbs excel at creating such confounding and discomforting images. They use the metaphor of a mousetrap to describe images which can pull in a viewer's gaze and then, without warning, snap at them. They are determined to investigate ideas around power and control in images and media, and in real life.
Voulgaris creates worlds outside of herself through collaboration, fiction, and narrative. The work presented at Silver Eye Center for Photography contains an ambiguous story of escape and destruction that subtly interrogates the power dynamics of victim and savior.
Sharing similar concerns, Hubbs is motivated by the way a photograph can be a container for atmosphere and pure feeling. Dressed in strange costumes and conducting bewildering acts, her self-portraiture brings together elements of performance and sculpture to create a feeling of suspense while contemplating the female body and those that gaze upon it.
Both artists confront how women's bodies are depicted and perceived in contemporary culture through their experimental, playful, and risky photographs. The show's title presents an open question of who is truly empowered, who is the mouse and what is the trap?
