Movable Stereotype

John Vettese sees what develops

by John Vettese

While the paintings and sculptures in this mixed-media show certainly skew toward abstraction in their approach, the photographs on display function as much more than a mere literal counterpoint. They can be read on multiple planes, from the straightforward to the metaphoric.

Take Adrian Abonce's Woman on the Floor of an Empty Room with a Dog Next to Her. The image delivers more or less exactly what the title promises: A woman sits in an unfurnished room with bare walls, looking out its window with a dog. As the sun shines through the curtains, a richly toned shadow of lines and squares is cast across the bare floor, making effectual use of the image's judicious open space.

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A tag indicating that the photographer is from Colombia and the image was shot in Northeast Philadelphia are the only clues to help us complete the narrative — a Colombian woman, recently transplanted to the Northeast, has just moved into this house with her pet. She hasn't unpacked this room yet. She's clearly in no hurry to, and her longing gaze indicates she doesn't feel exactly at home here. Until the woman — not this woman specifically, but the immigrant everywoman — makes further advancement into her new community and new life, it feels as empty and despondent as her digs.

Guatemalan photographer Jorge Figueroa offers what could be one possible sequel to this woman's story. Two restaurant staffers mug playfully for the camera; one is wearing a T-shirt reading, "Don't Hate Me Because You Ain't Me," the image's title. The two women in this image exhibit a clear and easy friendship, a peace discovered to combat the previous woman's loneliness.

Not all the photos are set in America. Isaias Amaro and Maximiliano Medina both shoot in the Dominican Republic, where their roots lie. Medina's black-and-white Anciano Dominicano shows an elderly farmer sitting at a fence post, smoke from his pipe wisping around his straw hat and tanned skin, a stately portrait of a lifetime of work.

Amaro also documents rural life, but through rich, colorful digital prints on canvas. Gestacin de una Sirena shows a bare-chested, pregnant woman with a big smile, wading across the orange-cream-colored water of the Rio Mascare. Camino al Paraiso, depicting a barefoot man walking a dirt road with bush cuttings tied round his waist, is awash in shades of brown and green. While it comes close to National Geographic-style exploitation, Amaro treats his subjects with respect and sincerity, crafting beautiful works from their likenesses.

Back Stateside, Tony Rocco's beautiful selenium-toned silver print Kiara in Parade shows a young girl raising an American flag above her head, letting it drape over her shoulders and across her GEAR UP Philadelphia sweater. Her downward gaze has an enigmatic, Mona Lisa quality. Is she content and at home in America? Does she pout because she feels excluded? Or is her flag simply really heavy?

Most metaphoric, and most compelling is Andrea Bibiloni's Miss Uni. Two side-by-side digital prints show the nearly identical portrait of a Nuyorican woman wearing a dress and "Miss Universe" sash. But the sash cuts off at "Uni," and the difference involves her brow. In one image, the woman has a unibrow and wispy light-brown fuzz on her upper lip; the other image has two distinctive brows and a fuzzless lip. One of these images clearly underwent digital manipulation, but the artist cleverly does not indicate which one, allowing viewers to bring their own baggage of preconceptions and stereotypes to the table.

(j_vettese@citypaper.net)

"Dilogo 365," through March 27, The Ice Box, Crane Arts, 1400 N. American St., 610-506-4990, cranearts.com.