The HOLE Project
Har-Prakash Khalsa
Dates Showing: January 9th - February 19th, 2000
Har-Prakash Khalsa's 'The Hole Project' is an exhibition of 39 large-scale black-and-white photographs of the "gateways" of the human body: Eye, Nostril, Mouth, Ear, Vagina, Penis, Anus, and Anterior Fontanelle (the soft spot on the back of your head, where several cultures believe your spirit enters and exits). With integrity and reverence, Khalsa confronts the viewer with a room full of body parts usually too taboo to be shown in public space. Mouths are turned sideways suggesting vaginas, and nostrils and eyes are shown upside down making them almost unrecognizable. Anuses and vulvas two feet wide become a landscape of ripples. More awe-inspiring than shocking, the exhibition is, like one viewer commented, like inspecting a naked giant.
A sampling of comments from the guestbook:
"Scary, like insects, close up."
"The most I can say is WOW. I really enjoyed deciding what they all were..."
"We mustn't be afraid to try new things, like the ad for seaweed pie says."
"What I think art should be - A new look at the familiar but unobserved."
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