Sondra Meszaro
/ Camoufleurs

In this exhibition, Sondra Meszaros continues her ongoing exploration of counter-narratives of female sexuality and representation through an expanded practice of collage as a vehicle to slow down images. Reworking erotic photographic images from instructional manuals for lighting, drawing, stock erotica and 1950’s nature imagery, Meszaros uncovers dynamics of power and inequality in the history of image-making. Working with pages ripped from books, Meszaros dismantles, disrupts, and renegotiates original images by remounting, cutting, blocking, tearing, and hinging them together.

This new work takes inspiration from the histories surrounding the Women’s Reserve Camouflage Corps which was a specialized unit of women artists formed during WW1 to WW2 that designed and tested camouflage techniques for the military. This group of radical women used their creativity and crafting skills to develop designs and disruptive patterns that mimicked the landscape to provide additional protection by bamboozling enemies. Meszaros explores her interpretation of how the rules of Dazzle Camouflage can be used as a technique to visually confuse through weird shapes, repetitive patterns, and restrained use of black and white.