photo by Jen Davis, courtesy the artist.
Photographer Jen Davis has produced a stunning series of self-portraits in which she stages herself in different scenes of daily life. With her new series, “I ask in exchange,” she takes portraits of men she says she would not approach, were she not empowered by her camera. This machine gives her the courage to walk up and speak with them. It becomes a tool of seduction and for a brief moment, she “asks in exchange” for the shooting to be looked at and desired by the subject. She will discuss the representations of the self with philosopher Pierre Cassou- Noguès, whose latest book, Mon Zombie et moi (“My Zombie and I”), plays with different short pieces of fiction in which he uses “I,” as a starting point for his philosophical reflection.”
Jen Davis lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Yale University (2008), and her BA from Columbia College Chicago (2002). She is represented by Lee Marks Fine Art. ”The perfect body image in this culture requires that one be thin. Images of perfectly fit individuals saturate the visual media, creating icons which establish a norm that makes all else seem to be deviant. Overweight people do not satisfy what is attractive or desired. In this body of work, I deal with my insecurities about my body image and the direct correlation between self-perception and the way one is perceived by others.” Jen Davis. She is featured in reGeneration 2: tomorrow’s photographers today, currently on view at Aperture Gallery.
A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, with a teaching degree in mathematics and a doctorate in philosophy, Pierre Cassou-Noguès is head of research at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and lectures in philosophy at the University of Lille III. Co-organizer in 2005 of a conference entitled ”What can science fiction prove? Minds, machines, bodies and worlds in science fiction”, he is interested in the philosophy of science and its relation to the imaginary. His recent research areas include the philosophy of mathematics in France in the 20th century, the history and philosophy of logic as exemplified in Gödel, the image of the machine in science and literature, and criticism of the idea of consciousness.
Villa Gillet Series: Jen Davis in Conversation with Pierre Cassou-Noguès :
Monday, January 31, 6:30PM
Aperture Gallery
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