Where: 1040 MASS MoCA WAY NORTH ADAMS, MA 01247
When: Aug 1, 2010–Jan 2, 2011
Artist/actor Leonard Nimoy will exhibit his recent photographic series that explores the lost or hidden self.
Inspired by Aristophanes' theory that humans were once double-sided creatures with two heads and multiple limbs before Zeus cleaved man in two and left him forever struggling to be whole again, Nimoy's photographs reveal his subjects' other half. Shooting in nearby Northampton, Massachusetts, Nimoy recruited volunteers from the local community with an open call for portrait models willing to be photographed posed and dressed as their true or imagined "secret selves." From the popular rock star and superman to the more unexpected dog lover and Pan, these various secret identities (off-line avatars as they might be described) offer an intimate, sometimes humorous, and often profound new look at the residents of Northampton and the inner yearnings and fantasies that we all share.
Accompanying the large, life-size photographs is a video documenting the artist's conversations with his subjects and the poignant, personal moments he masterfully elicits from his unlikely muses.
