Liz Cohen: River Road Pin-Up, 2012,
"Milford's Gravity Restaurant brings Raves"
-- Danny Raskin
C print, 50 x 60 inches.
at.
Performance Photography
At the end of the
day it's nice to feel
grounded by the
finer things in life.
experience
the force of
Lunch: 11:00 am - 3:00 pm, Mon-Fr i
Dinner : 4:00 pm, Mon-Sat
Ate
We serve Beer,
Wine and Sake
L
bar & grill
340 N. Main Street • Downtown Milford
248.684.4223 • www.gravityrestaurant.co
10 ■ 14Itila Sushi
sitoo
Suzanne Chessler
I Contributing Writer
Japanese Restaurant
DAILY SPECIALS
EVERY DAY SPECIAL
$7.99 Bento Box & Sushi lunch
TUESDAYS
Chef's Special
Rolls & Tempura Rolls 50% off
THURSDAYS
All-You-Can-Eat Lunch $9.99
Dinner 50% off all Chef's special rolls
SATURDAYS
Hometown & Tempura Rolls
50% off
Delivery and online ordering
wwwwbninja.com
Open 7 Days a week
Mon-Sat open at 11
Sunday open at 4
20%401 PF
Your total food bill
Not good with any other offer or coupon & daily'
specials Expires 12/8/12
.1
33214 W.14 Mile
at Farmington Road
West Bloomfield MI 48322
248-737-4188 1794100
Restaurant
Italian Cuisine
248.476.0044
Buy one lunch or dinner entree
15% off
and get the second 1/2 off
total
food bill
Of equal or lesser value
Not good with any other coupons.
Not good on holidays. One coupon per couple.
Expires 12/15/12
Not good with any other coupon.
One coupon per table.
Expires 12/15/12
Farmington Hills • Corner of Grand River & Haggerty Road
Auburn Hills • 1 miles south of the Palace of Auburn Hills
48
Nember 22 • 2012
m
1.2.0
iz Cohen does not separate
herself from subjects captured
through her digital artistry.
Instead, she often entwines herself
within them, often assuming identity
dimensions unlike her own reality and
becoming a performance artist.
Her current exhibit at the David
Klein Gallery in Birmingham — "On
the River Road: From Presidio to
Terlingua" — spotlights her in a series
of photographs and a video shoot in
Texas. It will be on view through Dec.
8 as produced by Ballroom Marfa, a
nonprofit Texas organization support-
ing contemporary arts and culture.
"The images feature a car, an East
German Trabant, which I worked on
over an eight-year period" says Cohen,
39, artist-in-residence and head of
the photography department at the
Cranbrook Academy of Art. "The car
converts into an American El Camino
through lowrider technology.
"I photographed the car along the
U.S.-Mexican border so it is in a set-
ting along the Rio Grande on a road
that's often referred to as the 'River
Road: It's very remote and between
two small towns.
"Alongside the car, I appear as a
pinup, which I've done in the past. I
also show my husband, Brian Foltyn, a
business appraiser, and our 15-month-
old son, Rafael:'
Cohen defines the exhibit as a "pro-
cess piece" in which the process of
making it is as much of the artwork as
the artwork itself.
For this series, she worked with a
team and explored possibilities of digi-
tal photography. Keeping her approach
fluid so that changes could be made
in defining images, she was not neces-
sarily the one who ultimately snapped
each scene.
"My background is in documentary
photography" Cohen says. "Previous
to this project, I photographed several
subcultures, one being transgender
prostitutes.
"I wanted to find a way to move
from being an outsider to being an
insider, and I wanted to pick a sub-
culture that captured my curiosity
but would have me as the least likely
member. I wanted to do something
where I would earn my credibility, and
I thought of building a custom car:'
Cohen's interest in subcultures has
to do with interests developed as a
student at Tufts University in Boston,
where she was a philosophy major
zoned into group responsibility.
"Tufts had an art requirement,
and I took a photography class:' she
explains. "I fell in love with it and
thought I could use it to explore
socially relevant issues. Tufts is affili-
ated with the School of the Museum of
Fine Arts in Boston, and I got a dual
degree"
After doing graduate work at the
California College of the Arts in San
Francisco, she began to take on pho-
tography projects supported by grants
and teaching assignments. Because of
her car project, she sought out long-
term work in Michigan.
Cohen, raised in Phoenix by non-
observant parents, traces her Jewish
heritage to her father's family, immi-
grants from Columbia.
"Being Jewish has been part of my
identity:' she says. "I belong to Reboot,
a national organization that works
to define what it means to be Jewish
within emerging generations"
Cohen's artwork is completed in
small, concentrated periods of time.
This summer, she will be taking the
car to compete in custom car shows
with an eye toward more photographs.
"I hope my work is optimistic in
the sense that things that are on the
fringe or marginalized often allow the
most invention or ideas eventually
embraced by the mainstream" says
Cohen, recipient of a Kresge Artist
Fellowship in 2011.
"I try to communicate to my stu-
dents that it's their responsibility to
figure out how they think art is sup-
posed to function, be aware of the
world around them and take risks"
❑
"On the River Road: From
Presidio to Terlingua" will be on
view through Dec. 8 at the David
Klein Gallery,163 Townsend,
Birmingham. Hours:11 a.m.-5:30
p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. (248)
433-3700; www.dkgallery.com .