Brigida Baltar: Bee House
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Bee House #2 exemplifies the work’s instant allure. Here Baltar’s limp body, half-dressed, is sprawled across a hardwood floor as if immobilized by sudden paralysis. Her right arm is outstretched, her hand reaching for something outside the frame. What is it? What unseen force toppled her? And how are these things related to the smothering orange scarf, stitched in a honeycomb pattern, that coils snakelike around her face and neck? By engaging us in these small mysteries and withholding concrete clues, the photograph creates a tension that pulls us into the exhibition in search of answers.
Although Baltar’s work is new to U.S. audiences–“Bee House” is her first solo show here–she’s been exhibiting in Europe for two years and in Brazil since 1994. She’s perhaps best known for an ongoing series of performances in which she “captures” mist. Recorded on video and in photographs, these astonishing scenes show her standing on foggy mountainsides and hazy beaches with test tubes in her outstretched hands. Watching her wade through the white vapor you find yourself squinting, trying to keep her in view, as if the clouds were threatening to carry her away. But with her face turned into the mist, Baltar looks as if she’d welcome this fate; what’s moving about these images is her serenity. The whole series comes across as an ode to mystery, Baltar’s celebration of the precarious feeling of standing amid the unknown.
By leaving us guessing, Baltar forces us into unfamiliar, uncomfortable territory. Her achievement becomes obvious when you see Bee House #7 just before the exit. Here Baltar is lying on her stomach on a grassy hill, but her pose is energized. The upper half of her torso is raised and she’s looking away from the camera, apparently staring over the hillcrest as if hunting for something amid the foliage or plotting an escape route. But the object of her gaze, like everything else in the distance, is out of focus. Staring into that impenetrable blur, you realize that Baltar is presenting you with a choice. You can continue your futile attempts to piece together the mysterious unknown. Or you can surrender to it, find joy in its unknowability, and carry this perspective out into the world. While “Bee House” celebrates the latter option, ultimately the choice is yours.
