Elaine Reichek

There is a flagrant and funny feminism weaving in and around Reichek's reworking of ethnographic, anthropological, and museum exhibition practices. It is most overtly manifested in her choice of the medium of knitting, which she uses to reproduce documentary photographs of native peoples and their dwellings.

It is our erotic body that Reichek invites us to explore. The knitted bodies offer the pleasures of texture and proximity. They have a plenitude, a warmth, a sensuality. Their tactility implicitly invites us to touch or rub these nude or seminude fuzzy bodies, ambiguous fusions of cuddly lifesize doll and dark enigmatic, even slightly threatening Other.

About the Artist:
Elaine Reichek was born in New York. She received a B.F.A. from Yale University and a B.A. from Brooklyn College. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (1993), The Jewish Museum, New York (1995), and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (1995). In 1999 her work will be exhibited in the Project Room at the Museum of Modern Art. She lives in New York City.

Introductory Essay by Jo Anna Isaak / Pictures from the Exhibition / List of Works / Excerpts of Essays included in the Catalog / History of the Exhibition / How to order a print copy of the catalog / About the Curator / Website Credits