© Barbara Confino

                                                                                                               © Joel Simpson

  On April 23rd, Safe-T-Gallery will be presenting the work of two photographers who use representations of the human body as the starting points for larger explorations of spirit and its imagery. Although there is a considerable difference in the style of their work, Barbara Confino and Joel Simpson each make photographic prints that transform and connect images of men and women into organic statements that evoke essential emotional responses. And they both do so by invoking imagery and forms that have been fundamental in on our visual cultures and development for thousands of years.
  In “Body Spirit Image” we present a series of ‘Totems’ by Barbara Confino. These confabulations, combining elements of male and female bodies, are at once fearsome and seductive. As totems, they are invocations of the human clan, paying homage to the fertility of life. Joel Simpson takes images of rocks and trees and projects them onto nude men and women. The resulting photographic illusions are metaphors, subtle but explicit, that explore our visual abilities to project spirits and desires onto the natural world.
  Joel Simpson is a photographer, writer and curator, whose photographs have been exhibited widely; an exhibit of 50 of his prints was recently shown at the Musée de l’érotisme in Paris. He writes that his images often reference prehistoric sculpture, so that those in Body Spirit Image “...celebrate the age of our collective bodies, as well as the erotic forces through which nature has assured the continuity of the human line from the Paleolithic and beyond to the present day.”
  Barbara Confino is a multimedia artist who has produced numerous sound, video, still, and live performance pieces. Her video piece “Hum” recently had its world premier at Symphony Space in New York with the Talujon Quartet. Confino writes, “The Totems are a group of large, iconic pieces that celebrate the body as a sacred space, one that reverberates with life and the continual power of generation.”