This multidisciplinary project explores our ongoing fascination with superheroes and secret identities. How do superheroes and secret identities help us express our fantasies? How do they help us combat our fears? If you could pick one super power, what would it be? Flight? Invisibility? Super speed or super strength? If you could design your online alter ego (known as an avatar), what qualities would it have?
America's obsession with the superhero dates to the late 1930s and early 1940s, when the comic book industry saw an explosion in readership and in new titles. In an era of uncertainty, comic books and superheroes offered readers an escape from the realities of the Great Depression and World War II, as well as the possibility of victory over evils of all kinds. The exhibition features a number of vintage comic books from this "Golden Age" of superheroes, dating from the 1940s to the 1960s. As recent Hollywood films illustrate, superheroes continue to fascinate in the 21st century and have inspired a number of contemporary artists. The exhibition features the work of three artists who approach the idea of the superhero from very different points of view.
Mark Newport knits superhero costumes to his own size. Hanging empty on the wall, these large disembodied costumes comment on traditional notions of masculine identity and our idealization of unattainable powers. He also photographs himself dressed in costume, prepared for disaster in mundane settings, and creates his own embroidered and illustrated comic book pages.
Dulce Pinzón photographs Mexican immigrants in popular U.S. and Mexican superhero costumes as they work at generally low-wage jobs. She captions each photo with a note about how much each worker sends home to his or her family each week, forcing us to reconsider our ideas of what a superhero really is. While super powers may be beyond our grasp in reality, the Internet has given all of us the chance to adopt alternate identities and extraordinary abilities in cyberspace.
Robbie Cooper has traveled the globe photographing computer gamers who spend hours each day in online worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft. He pairs his photographs with images of these gamers' online avatars, offering provocative insight into the online world of fantasy role-play.
Age Group: All Ages Venue: Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum Address: 191 5th ST E Ketchum Phone: 208.726.9491
Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum