CROTCHACHA

photos by Alexis O'Hara

Gladstone Hotel 2nd Fl Salle de Bain
Exhibition Dates: Sept 15-Oct 15, 2006
Opening Reception: Sept 15, 2006 7:30 - 9:30pm
Exhibition Hours: 12pm-5pm daily

Oh, to be a cobblestone on a busy street;

Or, to be a floor tile where the gossip girls meet.

A wooden slat, a rug laid flat, a sewer grate or three,

Just imagine all the knickers and the naughties you could see!

In Montreal, winter lasts almost half the year. Short days mean long nights. We distract ourselves from the slush, the ice and the howling winds by keeping the party on. We drink our grandfathers under the table and dance until the go-home lights blare. On the street, the smart ones are bundled tight like Le bonhomme carnaval or swathed in thrift store furs. Swaddled in fleece and down feathers and whatever hi-tech fiber the sporties endorse, we are like birthday presents just waiting to be unwrapped.

Like most of my artistic endeavors, Crotchacha started with happenchance as muse. It was a whoops-I-accidentally-took-a-picture moment. I liked the results and so I kept snapping. My subjects were friends at parties, strangers with interesting stockings and eventually, willing models presented themselves at the ready.

While I concede that the most popular photos in this series are the ones where flesh peers thru torn fabric, I favor the more abstruse images. The obvious, the money shot - is uninteresting.   Observed individually, these photos may well depict wild architectural designs, abstract compositions of color and fabric. I am a big fan of confusion. Danger, calamity, noise? Yes please! Exploiting the inadvertent, I lay claim to intention.