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With a smile, Feature Inc. opens its 2013-2014 season with Medicated, etc., recent photographs and video by Richard Kern, 4 September-12 October. There is a reception for the artist and book launch for Contact High, his photographs of girls smoking pot, published by PictureBox, on Thursday 5 September from 6-8 pm. Please be invited. Richard Kern has been photographing girls of the “hot” or “interesting-girl-next-door” variety for over 30 years. The photographs are straightforward, hint at documentary, and seem committed to the matter-of-fact reality of the day-to- day. Yet the consistent subtle sense of humor and styling make it clear that the artist has been involved in the construction of the image. The blatant theatrical sexuality of the models or performers, balanced against the rather mundane settings, sets up a dialog between the dynamics of inner and outer life. On one side of the gallery each 40 x 30” photograph presents a standing girl facing the camera in some arrangement of bra/panties/naked. She is in her bathroom, counter full of personal care items, with sink and mirror behind, lighting fixture above. Holding up one or both hands, she displays her prescription meds. Everything is clear and unambiguous: part personals ad, part infomercial, part performance art. Hanging on the opposite wall, each girl is seen in a 40 x 30” waist-up portrait in three-quarter view wearing a simple white blouse, smiling. Both the figure and the ground are similar in color and one seems to be blending into the other. In an off-registered double exposure, we see her both naked and clothed. Is she bewitching us? Is it our glasses, our medication, wishful thinking, sexual desire? 
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Chaima dbl, 2013; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500. |
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Medicated, etc., 2013; Installation view 1 | |
Nahema dbl, 2013; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500. |
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Alex dbl, 2013; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500 |
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Angela dbl, 2013; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500 |
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Brit dbl, 2013; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 1/3. 1 a.p.; $ 7,500 | |
Medicated, etc., 2013; Installation view 2 | |
Novo Trazodone / Cipralex, 2011; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 2/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500 | |
Adderall, 2011; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 3/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500 |
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Valium / Jasminelle, 2012; c-print; 40 x 30”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 7,500 |
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Hydroxyzine Pam / Doxepin / Lorazepam / Sertraliine / Colonazepam, 2011; c-print, pill bottles; 32 x 22”; unique; $ 10,500 | |
THRUSH HOLMES: Long Embrace, 2011 pigment print with resin on panel; 96 x 72”; ed. 3; $ 18,000 | |
Medicated, 2013; HD video; 27 minutes; ed. 5, 1 a.p.; $ 1,000 |
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Dana Smokes, 2010; c-print; 20 x 16”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 3,000 |
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UPFRONT: Sydney smokes 1, 2013; pigment print on fabric; size variable per site; price upon request | |
Val Stoned, 2010; c-print; 20 x 16”; ed. 1/3, 1 a.p.; $ 3,000 |
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