MARIA FRIBERG : AM DC connercontemporary.com May 17 - June 28, 2003
Friberg is widely recognized in Europe as an artist who deconstructs myths of masculine power revealing paradoxes and surprising vulnerabilities inherent in traditional male roles. She based her captivating images of corporate masculine identity in almost there (2000) on first-hand observation of male power networks in a leading European IT firm. To create no time to fall (2001) the artist explains, "I use a known person for the first time - the president of America, Mr. Bush - to tell a private and public story at the same time." Addressing a topical subject in a profound manner that transcends political commentary, Friberg edited a taped speech to reveal the president's personal responses to public pressures. AM DC (2002) is Friberg's recent, unstaged video of two men reading newspapers and drinking coffee in a Capitol Hill cafe. She captures them unaware at a quiet moment, while contextualizing this interior scene within the larger world of business and politics at progress around them. The men are at once part of and yet strangely isolated from this world. In aware but still there (2002) Friberg presents large color photographs, shot in New York, of a Texas businessman and a Great Dane. She explains that these iconic images of man and dog are "about failing to break bad habits. You are aware of them but unable to change according to reason or others' expectations." The powerful works presented in this exhibition will demonstrate Friberg's creative command of her subject to a new American audience.