notjustaboutsex

The recent exhibition at the National Arts Club struck me as very weird. In a show entitled Alternate Lives, Judith Henry’s photographs of herself with masks of deceased women is fun and a reminder of the many accomplishments of her subjects as well as their emotional tone, as demonstrated by Ms. Henry’s attitude to the mask.

But Morton Barlett (1909-1992) is something else entirely. Described as a ‘quiet man’, Mr. Bartlett, who dropped out of Harvard, spent years shooting mannequins of children.  Well, ok, I shot photos of the naked mannequins heading for the unemployment line when B. Altman’s closed their  shop, but I’m a woman and the wooden ladies were of age.

These curious images, including naked mannequins with obvious genital indents, is too close to PizzaGate and even some the real news on pedophilia for comfort.

His work brings to my mind, Henry Darger, an Outsider Artist, whose drawings also make me uncomfortable. When I asked someone sitting next to me at an event there,  if he didn’t see what I was getting at, he responded, “Of all the people I’ve talked to at the Club, you’re the first person to say this.”

Well, I don’t think I’ll be the last.

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