Articles + Reviews - JOY EPISALLA

Review: Joy Episalla

Moore, Claire. "Review: Joy Episalla at Debs & Co." NY ARTS. (April 2002)

The recent exhibition at Debs and Co. of Joy Epistalla's photographs and video works presents the viewer with several unconventional modes of presentation. The most noteworthy, however, is a photograph of a worn out piece of blue carpet mounted beneath a thick sheet of Plexiglas laid casually on the floor.

In this context, the image of the rug shifts into the ambiguous realm between object and representation in a manner that closely corresponds to Jasper Johns' Flag paintings. The flatness of the original object and the decision to cover it with a thick layer of Plexiglas give the piece a convincing sense of a depth as the blue hue is captured on the edges of the plastic.

In addition to the play between representation and reality there is a certain sense of physicality that operates as you walk around the piece. The lingering impressions of footprints, depressions from furniture, and occasional stains recall a sense of gravity at work.

Episalla goes against the alienating aspect so prevalent in the medium of photography by undermining the reproductive qualities of the process and returning the image to its original location. She returns art to a context rooted in life rather than anaesthetizing it by the standardized practice of matting, framing, and indifferently hanging it on the wall.

© claire moore 2006