Ethridge's work embodies the heteroglossy of the photographic realm, where the languages of commercial photography, fine art, mass-produced imagery and social media constantly intertwine. And just as these diverse genres coexist on magazine pages and computer screens, for Ethridge, an exhibition is an opportunity to bring together divergent subjects and styles within one's practice, suggesting that a mix of categories is not to be avoided. but to embrace.
In this exhibition entitled Sanctuary open until next March 9, proposed by Gagosian and staged in Hong Kong, Ethridge moves between work and home, city and country, work and leisure, passing from one code to another. The images interrupt each other, like fragments of different stories that come together to form a single playful narrative. This tinkering often reveals unexpected relationships. In a 2017 self-portrait, Ethridge's face, covered in sunscreen, peers at her cell phone in a mirror. Then, her face appears again on model Maryel Sousa's torso, as if her leotard had accidentally reflected the man behind the camera.
Many of the photographs included were taken in a cleaning center in Brooklyn, New York across the street from a photography studio where Ethridge often shoots for commissioned projects. Images of uniformed workers and Megerian Rug Cleaners' six-part work Suds and Rugs (2018), showing soap stains resembling saturated carpets, contrast with photographs taken in the same block, including a portrait of actor Lakeith Stanfield with a combed and auburn wig. The staged and the real are therefore placed on an equal footing, making it difficult to determine which photographs are sincere and whether the notions of sincerity or truth are absolutely relevant.
The themes of domesticity are also present throughout the exhibition (as cover image).
A close-up of four red roses contrasts with Mom and Dad's Pill Bottles (2018), in which an array of drugs is set against a speckled granite countertop, staging the image of a romantic garden against the mundane routine of suburban reality .
Like Ethridge's photographs, the meaning of the word "sanctuary" changes dramatically depending on the context, whether immigration debates, religious sites, or ecological preserves). The latter context is more literally referenced in photographs of animals, including a duck in a pond, a fluffy white cat with a ball of yarn, a swimming dolphin and a turtle on bright orange ground, with “sanctuary” written above the image in flickering letters along the bottom edge of the turtle's shell.
Roe Ethridge was born in 1969 in Miami and lives and works in New York. His collections include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Tate, London; and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium. Recent exhibitions include Momentum 4: Roe Ethridge, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2005); the 2008 Whitney Biennial, New York; Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2012, traveled to M-Museum Leuven, Belgium); and closest neighbor, the 3rd FotoFocus Biennial, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2016)
