Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, is pleased to present its first solo show by Los Angeles photographer Melanie Pullen, previously represented by Stephen Wirtz Gallery. The exhibition features photographs from Soda POP!, her new series that plays with cultural assumptions; she combines things typically associated with childhood, such as computer games, and places them in adult nighttime settings. The unease is heightened featuring young people marginalized by society, neglected street kids, or male prostitutes. There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, November 5, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The exhibit runs from November 5, 2015 through January 9, 2016.
As an eight-year-old insomniac Melanie Pullen would hang out her bedroom window on Christopher Street in New York City. There she became friends with a man who would stand outside her bedroom window every night at exactly midnight, a seven-foot tall African cross dresser who worked the corner of her street until 3 am. He would tell her crazy stories while fixing his messy blond wig between gigs. Their friendship, while unconventional, helped Pullen survive the lonely, late-night hours. Exploring these previous states of mind and her current experiences as the mother of a young child, she found herself awake and alone late at night after her son had fallen asleep. In the same way her cross dressing friend entertained her then, she now often occupies this time playing Candy Crush Soda Saga on her cell phone. The game depicts sickeningly sweet colors and candy that sparkle and pop while a deep voice congratulates you with statements such as “juicy” and “tasty” as you work your way to clearing a plane of corresponding treats.
In the same time window in which her cross dressing friend worked, midnight to 3 am, Pullen now meets young men around her Los Angeles neighborhood, in places such as the Los Angeles Metro Station or the Santa Monica Pier, seedy locations that are safer visited by the light of day. Pullen pays each $20 and has them select a vintage soda bottle. She finds the vintage bottles, with names such as “Pleasure Time!”, “JUMBO!”, and “Dad’s” at online auctions. She lets the young men pose as they wish, usually photographing where she approached them. The organic, slightly impulsive nature of the shoots further plays with our ideas of what’s appropriate for young people and how it actually manifests itself, emphasized by the knowledge that her subjects are exactly what we don’t expect of typical young Americans. Read More
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