Name: Kerri O'Neill
Artist: Merry Alpern
Source: book- Ctrl Space: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother
Web: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_2_38/ai_57475797

While looking at a book that my friend let me borrow, I came across the works of Merry Alpern. She is a photographer who bases most of her work around the act of voyeurism, which is the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects, or acts secretively. Alpern had a friend who lived near Wall Street with a bird’s-eye view of some eye-popping action in the club’s upstairs bathrooms. She was in shock with the things she saw such as strippers changing, drug transactions, and acts of prostitution that she decided to document her findings with her camera for the next nine months, until the club was shut down. In her series of photographs titled "Dirty Windows" she allows the viewer to peek into the lives of individuals who go to this adult club on regular basis. For this particular exhibition, Alpern’s 12 photographs are hung in box formation, like rows and columns of windows, giving the impression of one big building filled with illegal, tawdry acts. In one “window,” a dancer, shown only from neck to thighs, grasps a handful of money while her ratty black-lace teddy is hiked up in an obscene manner. Another scene portrays a young woman kneeling; it’s unclear whether she’s about to engage in a paid sex act or simply bending to lace her boots. These pictures were taken at such an interesting angle that it makes you want to look closer but also turn away at the same time in fear of feeling like a dirty voyeur. I also enjoy how the bars from the window sort of cut the image into parts but still allows you to see the image as a whole.

Here are a few of the "windows":
http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/alpern.jpg
http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_622_115507_resize_merry-alpern.asp


As for the article we had to look up for our projects, I came across "Face Value: Plastic Surgery & Transformation Art." The article talks about a group of artists who primarily base art around beauty, aging, and replaceable body parts. The French performance artist, Orlan, made her own body transformation the subject of her work. Using Photoshop reconfigurations she was able to give her body repeated plastic surgeries. She said her work questions "the status of the body in our society and its evolution in future generations via technologies and upcoming genetic manipulations." I'm interested in showing the difference between natural beauty and artificial beauty for my project. Since plastic surgery is part of the norm these days, it will be interesting to see how an average person will look with a few slices and dices.

Web: http://www.nyas.org/snc/gallery.asp?exhibitID=14