The Wapping Project Bankside, a new commercial gallery space adjacent to Tate Modern, is to curate a provocative solo exhibition by the renowned American documentary photographer Susan Meiselas from 27 May until 3 July.
Susan Meiselas is a New York based Magnum Photographer best known for her work covering the political upheavals in Central America in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the Wapping Project Bankside show is a carefully edited selection from Meiselas’s highly acclaimed 2001 book ‘Pandora’s Box,’ in which the photographer documented the highly formalized rules and rituals of Pandora’s Box, a 4000-square-foot, high-class Manhattan sex club run by a dominatrix called Mistress Raven.
The club, which bills itself as the “Disneyland of Domination,” is one of New York’s most exclusive sex clubs, and through the 30 photographs that make up the Wapping Project Bankside show, Meiselas takes us on a journey into these “vacations from reality,” expertly portraying the sadomasochistic experience as beautiful, unnerving, and ultimately, self-reflexive(self-reflective?).
The Pandora’s Box series was originally commissioned to accompany the Nick Broomfield documentary “Fetishes”, but today this highly provocative series stands out as a darkly captivating journey into this high-class sex club that specialises in sado-masochism. In these vivid photographs, Meiselas not only documents the role-playing that the club offers, she candidly reveals both the customers who frequent the club and the women who work there.
The richness of Meiselas’s imagery immediately infuses the Pandora’s Box series with an almost surreal cinematic quality that ultimately lures the viewer into this hidden world of fantasy. Windowless and draped in velvety blues and lustful reds, white surgical tiles and, of course, leather, Meiselas’s camera captures a secret self-enclosed world of probing visual seduction, an approach which effectively drives the viewer’s desire to become a voyeur.
The contrast between images depicting individuals engaged in the activities for which Pandora’s Box is famous juxtaposed with the more relaxed imagery of dominatrixes smoking and preparing for their next encounter, directs the viewer to perceive Meiselas’s subjects as multifaceted personalities. Spending time with these images, one becomes acutely aware of the dichotomy in the relationship between the looker—the viewer—and the looked at—those depicted in the photographs.
Commenting on the show, Jules Wright, says: “This stunning series of images awakens us to the casual sadism of vision, and illustrates much more than the workings of an S & M club. Together, the images demonstrate several levels of objectification: the objectification of the masochist by the dominatrix, and the reverse, as well as the objectification of both by the viewer, who stands safely distanced from the implied sexual activity.”
The Wapping Project Bankside show coincides with Susan’s inclusion in Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera (28 May – 3 October 2010) a new photography exhibition at Tate Modern. In addition to several works by Meiselas, Exposed features the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand and Garry Winogrand and offers an illuminating and provocative perspective on subjects both iconic and taboo.
Established by Jules Wright, the founder and creative director of the award-winning Wapping Project in East London, the Wapping Project Bankside is a new commercial gallery space dedicated to championing photography and film.
The Gallery is located at 65a Hopton Street, London SE1 9LR and is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00-19.00 hrs and on Monday by appointment only. Closed Sunday. All works on show are available to purchase.
