Shrine

Cityzen's own Shani Frymer has been invited to show her work at our favourite downtown gallery / bar, The Skinny. For this special edition of Hanging At The Skinny, we turn the tables on the gal who is usally behind the pen, and take a look at her work behind the camera. Please join us on Thursday, July 14th for the opening night party: The Skinny Orchard Street @ Stanton New York based artist Shani Frymer was born in 1982 in the city of New York, raised in Soho (pre Prada and Bloomingdales) and currently resides in the East Village. She attended Bennington College from 2000-2004 attaining her BFA in photography and Literature and returned to the city to pursue her artistic career.

Artists Statement:
During the winter of 2004 I was offered room and board with the family of a fellow student and friend in Mexico. We stayed in a lovely Yellow house (a very popular color in those parts) and explored desolate, dusty and dry humidity in the streets of Chalula all day long. I saw a dog steal a tortilla from a tortilla factory, whose mechanized whirring and gear churning were a horrific contrast to the sunny cheerful colors of the Mexican homes.

Architecture

One of the starkest contrasts to be found between Mexican culture and the culture that I was brought up in is the unavoidable religious iconography that saturates the Mexican society. Mosaics in the street coupled with miniature shrines inside their homes, the virgin of Guadalupe is paid tribute to on many levels. There is a saint for every day of the calendar year and each city celebrates their patron saint by holding block parties and emblazoning their churches and cathedrals with festive colored flags and scattered flower petals.

Oaxacan Home

Confetti Angel

Interior, Church of the Franciscans

Additionally there is a spectrum of variety in architecture styles varying between commercial and residential buildings. Cathedrals are gilded top to bottom with gold embellishment and orange painted walls with crosses, commercial buildings in town are similarly painted in bright sun drenched colors that make every day a fiesta. Homes on the smaller streets that are aptly named by their direction, and follow in numeric order. These homes, although celebrated with similar day-glow colors would be unrecognizable in the states. Some do not have roofs, some lack from doors. Many are fenced in or segmented off from the street by way of plastic sheeting. In a culture that is so vastly different from our own, it is difficult to comprehend that these living spaces could be functional. But there is a trust, a different sense of security that could be said is lacking in our own country.

South 5th Street

Yellow

The images that I am presenting are the result of the exploration of a country foreign to me. They serve as a display of my own perspective and personal experience. The way I have chosen to represent my experience is by highlighting the dedication to religion and idols coupled with the very aesthetic of the culture that determines the way it is perceived by foreigners. It ties into my personal mission, and personal vision to show that of the everyday that is taken for granted. To show the beauty that exists if we would only have the willpower to resist our everyday egocentric tendencies. These images will capture and stimulate your imagination, and by doing so, extend our vision beyond our personal boundaries.

Floating Angel