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| October 10, 2012 Fuji Instant b+w film ISO 3200 |
In 2000 I had a joint show with two Argentine painters, Juan Manuel Sánchez and Nora Patrich, and an Argentine photographer Claudia Katz. Our show was about our nostalgia for our country. I had been slow all my life to finally realize then that to have nostalgia for your home country you had to be away from it!
The show, called Nostalgia led to further collaborations with Patrich and Sánchez. But some 6 years ago the couple called it quits, separated and each returned to Buenos Aires separately. I miss our daily conversations on the phone and the almost daily visits in which we sipped mate. I miss, most of all talking about art and not feeling isolated as I feel now without them.
But some months ago I met the fabulous Stefanie Denz, a painter with German roots who lives in Salt Spring Island. She is represented by Celia Duthie at the Duthie Gallery there. Duthie and Denz are also friends. When suggested that I have a show in her gallery next June and that the show be one of my erotic photographs I came up with the idea of perhaps having some collaborations ( I called my works with Patrich and Sánchez, colaboraciones) with Denz. She did agree and yesterday (Denz took the ferry from Salt Spring) we had a session with Bronwen Marsden at her house in East Vancouver.
Much of Denz’s work is voyeuristic. She was keen then to have me photograph Marsden while she sketched the proceedings. To me this was a splendid ratcheting upwards of her voyeurism.
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| Fuji Instant b+w 3200 ISO |
I realized, that if things go as I think they will I will find myself for the first time in my life as a subject in a painting or sketch. On Wednesday morning I removed a clean pair of blue jeans and put on some black ones. Rosemary enquired if there was something wrong with the blue jeans. I told her that because I was going to wear a light blue dress shirt I though the black would go better. I even considered wearing a tie!
Our session with Marsden was fun. Although I did not sip mate or converse in Spanish, Marsden offered me a hot cup of coffee when I arrived and later we three sipped a lovely tea in beautiful tea cups. I left refreshed and my nostalgia for working with someone else on a joint project was temporarily satisfied. I believe we will continue.
Stefanie Denz