¢a$h&¢arry is a traveling exhibition that has been presented in San Francisco at 1599ftd, Nationale in Portland, Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco, Quint Contemporary in San Diego and a selection of works were exhibited at The Jordan Schnitzer Museum in Eugene Oregon.
These 250 images serve as an incomplete archive, as all archives do, chronicling five years of studio practice. While varying greatly in scope, the overlapping bodies of work are all rooted in the space of the studio itself, which Materazzi shares with her children Mia and Brook, where it serves as both a constant and a site of flux; a witness to the palimpsest of a life in session.
Between the three of them, the works on view were completed between the ages of 37-41 and 3-11, respectively.
In her portraits, Materazzi objectifies not just her body, but the precarity of its nature. Nipples, noses, knees, the small people she grew in her body and the messes they’ve made on the ground are neither daft nor holy but both, simultaneously, in equal measure.
Rather, there is something to be said about the reality of covering one’s body in green paint with the knowledge that you have to pick your kids up from school by 3pm.
Spanning the gamut from erotic to abject, the works in view overlap with experiences of parenthood, divorce, the pandemic, the cultural amnesia that followed, and a standard sense of dailiness. Shared among them is a sense of urgency, a sensation that feels big and small at the same time—the way a paper cut throbs.
Hovering between intention and accident, focus tests and iPhone pics, something that cannot be so contained lines the walls—a life’s work in progress, one that fits in the palm of your hand.
-Rel Robinson
1599ftd, San Francisco
Nationale, Portland, OR
Eleanor Harwood, San Francisco, CA
Quint Contemporary, San Diego, CA
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR
zine of photographs to test focus
