Los Angeles takes centre stage in Alex Prager’s upcoming show at Lehmann Maupin gallery in New York, which includes new photographic and a film work. The film piece, Play the Wind, takes viewers around Prager’s birth city; shown from the viewpoint of a car passenger and driver, the film depicts many passing moments, which have a dream-like quality to them. The artist’s loose approach to reality is reflected in her new photographic work too, where scenes that may appear everyday on first look reveal a cinematic quality, with perfectly lit subjects, and a clash of normal human life with the uncanny. In this image, one extra large woman wanders through a busy crowd. The strut of the large, female sculpture appears more naturalistic and lifelike than the heightened movements of the crowd, and the skin of both human and mannequin subjects is waxy and highly shined. Where, one wonders, does reality really lie?
