Vessel, par Luis Alberto Rodriguez

The work of artist and photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez deals with the body as a spiritual and physical repository. It is a kind of archive, a locus for experience and knowledge embodied within the corporeal self in states of transcendence and surrender, in fullness and emptiness, and in autonomy and interdependence. This exhibition draws on two seemingly divergent yet interconnected disciplines, fine art photography and fashion photography. Yet the overarching connection in the work of Luis Alberto Rodriguez is concerned with the discourse of the body occupying metaphysical and physical space, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in conflict with itself.

The human body is the physical manifestation of various psychic and metaphysical states of being, often a battleground for politics and culture, of control and release, at play, at work, and in various states of movement and stillness. The body becomes the site of these tensions. Our own liminal states of being are manifested in these bodies. And yet the body can be a site of transgression and autonomy, the assertion of self and resistance. It can be a vehicle for exerting dominion and can become a type of armor that we mobilize in order to face the sometimes oppositional dynamics at play outside of our control or that attempt to suppress our liberation. Rodriguez’s representation of diverse bodies, each beautiful in their nuances and perfect imperfections is itself an act of resistance, an insistence on the primacy of embodiment and experience.

The fashion photography of Luis Alberto Rodriguez shows the embodiments of the tensions between form and space. Fashion is an instrument of forging identity, the malleability of the body and the disguises that we take on to present and represent ourselves. Putting on garments, wearing the clothing, is about inhabiting our identities, sometimes serious and sometimes at play. There is a specific beauty in these photographs given in the close attention to the lines and the draping of each garment, the way that they enhance the wearer’s body, and the way in which each wearer brings their own character to the clothing. It is an interplay between body and material, movement and confinement.

The people, whose bodies in the photographs form the series O, are shown in various states of being, in suspension and release, giving way to forces both in and out of the subject’s control. There is attention that is given to detail and nuance: muscular tension, a turn of the foot, the gestures of the hands, a slight turn of the head, the unsteadiness of the body seemingly suspended in space, each of these gestures indicate and give meaning to the emotions and tensions underneath the skin, how the unseen or unspeakable can play out in the sometimes unconscious movements of the body. The push and pull of gravity, or even perhaps a higher power beyond our control can nudge us towards a different state of being. As heightened awareness of the body takes shape, the emergence of a newer, different self can take place, with a greater understanding of our interior lives and subconscious thoughts.

Both projects speak to the potential and agency of the body, the form that we take on in order to get closer to our truer selves. They nudge us towards understanding the body as a place of empowerment and release, of self awareness and ecstatic experience.

Curation and Text by Song Tae Chong Ph.D.
Curator’s Note: O, by Luis Alberto Rodriguez, was published as a monograph in 2023 by Loose Joints
and is currently in its first edition.