Subject & Surface
Kellye Eisworth and Forrest Lotterhos
March 15 - April 25, 2019
In Subject & Surface, artists Kellye Eisworth and Forrest Lotterhos engage with the body as a site of exploration. The artists draw on their own personal histories to create two distinct bodies of work investigating concepts of identity, agency, and vulnerability. In his short film phoria, Lotterhos draws from his experience as a trans man to offer an intimate look into the complex relationship between the body and the self through candid conversations with members of the trans community. Informed by her experience as a woman with prominent, visible scars, Eisworth’s Topographies of Pain is a series of photographs featuring “female” subjects who have been physically marked by their past while questioning the body’s role in the construction and performance of identity and gender. In Subject & Surface, these two intricate narratives intersect and diverge to form a dialogue that deepens the complexity and amplifies the resonance of both.
phoria
phoria is an intimate view of five AFAB (assigned female at birth) trans* people with dysphoria, re: chest. It was shot entirely on black and white 16mm film and hand processed. phoria started as a simple and straight forward idea about showcasing non-binary people and their bodies. It soon developed into a deep and intimate inquiry into identity, self, trans-ness, and the infinite and intricate complexities of transgender people and their experiences in life and existing within their bodies that they often times feel estranged to.
Topographies of Pain
Mapping the geography of pain through markings on the body, Topographies of Pain grapples with the ethical implications of the act of looking and what it means to bear witness to the pain of others. At once both intimate and aggressive, this relationship is dependent on the willingness of both participants to see and be seen by the other. The photographs work to use this shared vulnerability as a point of connection, collapsing the distinction between self and other where the pain of revealing and the pain of looking at that which is revealed converge.
about the artists:
Kellye Eisworth is a Denver-based artist utilizing the photographic medium to explore themes of memory, pain, vulnerability, and the concepts of innate and constructed identity. Employing the conventions of traditional studio portraiture, her work focuses on the human body as a cultural and individual text to be read. Though often entering into a dialogue about larger social norms, much of her work is rooted in the autobiographical; whether through direct self-exploration or through empathetic encounters with others, her artistic practice allows her to interpret and understand her own personal history as well as the world around her.
Eisworth has exhibited her work across the country, including First Street Gallery in New York, NY; the MPLS Photo Center in Minneapolis, MN; and The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO. A Louisiana native, she received her BFA in photography from Louisiana State University in 2012 and a MFA in interdisciplinary media arts practice at the University of Colorado in 2016.
Forrest Lotterhos is a North American filmmaker living and working in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in San Bernardino, California. He recently graduated sum cum laude from University of Colorado, Film Studies Program. Forrest creates mostly in 16mm film—short documentary and works with experimental darkroom processes. His work, phoria, has been presented in film festivals such as Pensacola LGBT Film Festival, OutReels Cincinnati, Strange Beauty Film Festival, Visionaria Film Festival, and Vilnius LGBT* Festival.
As a trans-masculine identified person, Forrest is dedicated to utilizing the film medium to create awareness and understanding around the transgender experience by providing individuals a voice to translate their unique and complex identities.