Elena Dorfman

camara oscura galeria de arte Calle Alameda 16 28014 Madrid Spain (city map) Send E-mail tel +34 (0)91- 429 17 34 www.camaraoscura.net

PRESS RELEASE

ELENA DORFMAN
"Fandomania"

camara oscura galeria de arte

17 January - 23 February 2008
Opening: Thursday, 17 at 8.00 pm

Next Thursday, 17 January, a solo exhibition of the American photographer (Boston, born 1965) Elena Dorfman's series "Fandomania" opens at the camara oscura art gallery.

Documenting the extraordinary world of "cosplay" in which participants dress in costume as characters from video games, animated films, and Japanese graphic novels, "Fandomania" reveals each subject's experimentation with role-play. The convention center provides a sanctuary for participants' homemade constructions of identity, in which the personality of the subject is united with elements of the anime world. Employing aspects of the visually fantastic, Dorfman's photographs conjure an imagined reality occupied by cross-dressing samurai warriors, mad hatters, and psychedelic princesses. Additionally, an animated film entitled "Costume Play", with music by J.J. Abrams, will be screened during the show.

Emerging in the wake of Dorfman's last series, "Still Lovers" a project about hyper realistic sex dolls and their owners, "Fandomania" presents an opportunity for the artist to revisit themes of role-play and the increasingly blurred lines between fiction and reality, taking a step further from documentary photography. Dorfman's work presents a modern mythology informed by a collective familiarity with Japanese print media and culture.

In a recent interview with the Aperture Foundation, Dorfman describes the "theater of cosplay" as possessing "no boundaries" a place both "unpredictable, and open ended." The absence of rules or societal limitations, grants each participant the freedom to be auteur of their constructed reality. The convention center transforms into a safe zone separate and apart from mundane reality. The sense of collective acknowledgement is central to the cosplay experience. Creating a private theater within the convention center, Dorfman's temporary studio provided an additional landscape for cosplayers to perform their dramatic acts of self-representation.

We hope to see you there and we appreciate the publication of this press release. For further information, please contact Juan Curto on +34 914 291 734, by e-mail at info@camaraoscura.net or by visiting our website at www.camaraoscura.net

ELENA DORFMAN - "Fandomania" NOTA DE PRENSA como pdf-Archivo 59,8 KB

Madrid, 1 December 2007.

camara oscura galeria de arte
T. +34 91 429 17 34
c/ Alameda, 16, 1º B
ES 28014 Madrid, Spain