Search for content, post, videos

New York : Gail Albert-Halaban, Vis à Vis at Edwynn Houk Gallery

Preview

Currently, Edwynn Houk Gallery presents Vis à Vis, show with new photographs by Gail Albert-Halaban. Her new series Vis à Vis, is set in Paris, where she peers through and photographs what’s behind the windows in the French city’s apartments and courtyards. Instead of being the voyeur, however, Albert-Halaban is an active participant, stage-managing each scene. The residents are knowingly photographed, as if actors on a film set. They willingly share their intimate, domestic moments: a child’s birthday party, a woman greeting her guests in the foyer, a man reading a book under a dim lamp. The stories and narratives that are told are familiar and open-ended, with Albert-Halaban leaving infinite possibilities as to how the scenes could unfold.

With Vis à Vis, Albert-Halaban further explores the quintessential paradox of living in a great urban metropolis: the disconnection and estrangement that exists for all its residents despite living and working so physically near to each another. Initially, it seems that Albert-Halaban is illustrating the loneliness of an urban dweller – isolating a tiny top floor window, for example, amongst a sea of windows within numerous buildings across a vast expanse of the surrounding city. Yet conversely, she is bringing the residents together. By introducing neighbor to neighbor – above, below, next door and across the way – she gains access and permission from both parties to take the photograph from a window while the other is in the photograph. Consequently, a heady dose of optimism can be found in the pictures: her efforts bring disparate souls together, forming a single community.

EXHIBITION
Vis à Vis
Gail Albert-Halaban
From May 21st to July 10th, 2015
Edwynn Houk Gallery
745 Fifth Avenue
New York NY 10151
USA

Tel 212 750 7070
http://www.houkgallery.com/

Create an account or log in to read more and see all pictures.

Install WebApp on iPhone
Install WebApp on Android