Big Gurl

Friday, April 4th - Sunday, April 27th, 2008
In the Video Lounge
Lauren Kelley

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Big Gurl is a video featuring African-American Barbie-style dolls filmed in a combination of claymation and stop animation. Staging vignettes that are alternately clumsy and endearing, in sets that are as ingenious in their inventive simplicity as they are glossy and glib in their brightly colored, over lit presentation. Kelley seems intent on showing all the seams of her video making. Figures bend and move awkwardly; when giant beads of sweat overwhelm the fast food workers in one scene, Big Gurl’s narrative seems ready to spin out of control. But her techinque is occassional awkward, Kelley’s voice is consistent and clear in addressing serious subjects, ranging from pregnancy to male chauvinism, self-image to the feminine mystique.