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Art & Books

Suzy Lake makes waves

SUZY LAKE at U of T Art Centre (15 King’s College Circle), to June 25, panel w/ Lake, tonight (Thursday, May 19), 7 pm. 416-978-1838. See listing. Rating: NNNN


For the last 40 years, Suzy Lake’s groundbreaking photography, video and performance have delved into the tricky and politically charged terrain of feminine identity. Using her body as the crux of her practice, she poses the question “What does it mean to be a woman, to have a wo-man’s body and to be viewed as feminine?”

Political Poetics, an exhaustive and beautifully presented retrospective, spans her career from the 70s to the present. Lake puts herself through a series of rigorous transformations and symbolic ordeals, from being used as a marionette in some photos to appearing as Gustav Aschenbach, the male protagonist in Thomas Mann’s Death In Venice in others.

Lake’s daring, provocative and witty strategies for portraying femininity can be seen as direct predecessors of Cindy Sherman’s work.

art@nowtoronto.com

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