The Kiss is an exhibition mapping a system uniting two bodies. It is a gesture, magnified by the use of sound, emerging from the action of kissing and intensified by the working presence of the performer’s body. Throughout the space each element is weaved by simple associations between body (present and absent), sound, and various materials which are all used to reveal the nature of this binding gesture: kissing. The series does not display one privileged moment of the kiss – rather, it dislocates it through its many representations, underlining in this way an aural intensity which catalyses the possibility of an image of kissing within each spectator. The series could be also perceived as a microscope slide where some of the components of kissing are exalted and isolated in order to better understand them. It is not a rendering, it is not a choreographed sequence, it doesn’t function within linear time. But it proves the force contained in a simple gesture (kissing) giving it simultaneously a voice and an expanded corporeality.
The Kiss - Location One, NYC. Framed, 2012
The Kiss - Location One, NYC Framed, 2012
Custom Archival pigment print on dry mounting museum board
Dimensions: 44 in. H x W 59 in.
Self Nude Portrait Color Photograph
Framed
María José Arjona (b.1973 in Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in Miami.
She was trained as a contemporary dancer before turning to performance art.
She received her Master's degree in visual arts from the Superior Academy of Art in Bogotá. She also has been the artist-in-residence at the Watermill Center for Robert Wilson in New York.
Her recent performance exhibitions were included at the South Florida Art Center in Miami, the Miami Light Project, the Ballroom Marfa in Texas, and the Damien-B Contemporary Art Center in Miami. She also exhibited video performances at the Galleri Se in Bergen, Norway, and at the Museo de Barrio in New York.