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Detail from Goddess #1 by Rosie Emerson

“Currently showing at the Smokehouse is Spectacle, a mostly photographic collection of work by eight artists. Spectacle is billed as being about “archetypes including the Pin-up, the Pope and the Goddess” so it promises religion, sex and fashion – three topics that have fascinated humans since the time of cave paintings. The artists who deliver most on the sex and religion front respectively are Rosie Emerson and Casey McKee.”

“Emerson’s series of Goddess photos are glossy, black and white, almost calligraphic in their two tone precision. One of her models has the beauty of a young Christine Keeler; looking at a soaring picture of her as half-naked faun/dominatrix (see above) I found myself hoping she combines Keeler’s looks with the media savvy of Mandy Rice Davies. She certainly has a marked ability to resist both camera and photographer and the complicity they often invite. Suspended in mid-air gripping a chandelier in one hand, her nipples like frosted lava and her eyelashes morphed into what seem to be Salvador Dali’s moustache she maintains an aura which suggests her own personal imagination is far more powerful than any mere pose or outfit.”
Review by Brigitte Istim

Click here to read the full article from The Collective Review

For further reviews see Martina Randles and Catherine Hewett