PREVIOUS EXHIBITION
Michelle Carla Handel, "Strange Skin"
May 6th - May 29th, 2011
Opening Reception Friday, May 6th, 7-11pm
W E E K E N D is pleased to present, "Strange Skin," Michelle Carla Handel's first solo exhibition outside academia. The sculptures in the exhibition present a confounding surreality of the body on a human and inhuman scale. Composed of skin-like rubbers and animate textiles, the sensual anthro- and dysmorphic forms suggest disembodied organs and fleshy mutations that both fascinate and disgust. The corporeal forms, helpless to stand on their own, depend on support from the walls, slump and droop on wooden stands, or hang suspended by rubber harnesses that strive to prevent the eventual course of gravity that pulls them downward. Colored with synthetic pinks and yellows as well as brownish skin tones, the shapes take on an inhuman voluptuousness attended by impossible appendages and unseemly protuberances. Beneath the vulnerable sensuality flows a vein of subtle humor that underlines the work with cartoonish caricature, adding a sense of absurdity to the gross physical desire for escape from the gravitas of the body's inevitable dissolution.
Michelle Carla Handel will receive her MFA from Claremont Graduate University in May 2011. She currently is a nominee for the 2011 Outstanding Student Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center. Her show, "Strange Skin," will be seen from May 6-29th, 2011, at WEEKEND. The opening reception will take place on May 6, 2011, from 7-11 pm.
