Jesse Burke Blind | Ariana Page Russell Blouse

February 16 to March 17, 2025

Artists’ Reception, First Thursday, March 1, 6 to 8PM
Artists’ Lecture, March 2, 6:30PM, Photo Center NW, Seattle

| LINK TO IMAGES FROM THE EXHBITION |

“How these two play off each other, the masculinity and isolation intrinsic in Jesse Burke’s Blind and the sensual and intimate in Ariana Page Russell’s Blouse, is incredible. However, they both give the viewer a voyeuristic/creepster vibe. As if we’re privy to a private, possibly dangerous moment.” – The Stranger

Blind is Jesse Burke’s exploration into masculine identity as well as man's obsession with and innate calling to simultaneously dominate and embrace the natural world. “I'm most interested in concepts related to hunting—such as death and power, fragility and vulnerability, identity, mutability and camouflage. I am also interested in the awkward, yet often beautiful and romantic, relationship we share with nature.”

The skin is a porous surface, and challenges with it often have to do with personal boundaries. Russell has dermatographia, a condition in which her immune system exhibits hypersensitivity through the skin, causing painless, temporary welts that emerge when lightly scratched. The symptoms of dermatographia create a drama that plays on the skin, allowing Russell to address the aftermath of bodily contact. The flesh offers evidence of a physical exchange, albeit unaccompanied by narrative or explanation. Her skin, while unable to disguise the inflicted mark, invokes the action that brought it to the surface.

Russell’s depictions of the body allow her images to explore the free and fluid nature of sexuality, adornment and expression. In the photographs Cord and Net, her legs are etched with welts that mimic the back seams and fishnet designs of hosiery. Here, adornment of the body is illusory as Russell creates a veritable screen that both springs from and protects the flesh.
 
Ariana Page Russell graduated from the University of Washington with a MFA in Photography in 2005. She has exhibited at Some Space Gallery, SOIL Gallery, and 4Culture Gallery in Seattle and had solo exhibitions in New York and Scottsdale, AZ. Her last solo show at Platform in 2010.

Left image: Jesse Burke Hay Hill, 2010, archival pigment print. Right image: Ariana Page Russell, Net, 2011, archival pigment print.