“Embrace” is a collection of photographs curated by the Guggenheim Circular serving as a response to the deprivation of intimacy which the coronavirus pandemic, and subsequent lockdown, brought onto many. Exhibited online during June of 2020, a month which hosted not only pride month but a series of protests across the world demanding racial justice, “Embrace” is a series which investigates race, sexuality, and gender.
The collection includes works such as “Melissa & Lake, Durham, North Carolina” from a series by artist Catherine Opie titled “Domestic (1995-1998)”. Opie’s series featured a collection of portraits taken across the country of lesbian couples or them and their families. In “Melissa & Lake” two women hold each other in a bedroom while staring with intense solemnity into the camera lens. Despite the image itself being quite docile, a sense of melancholy seems to wash across it. This same melancholy is then embedded into the viewers, as it projected through both the women’s sad stares. The intent of Opie’s collection was to put an emphasis on the plight of an underrepresented and misunderstood community. Through seeing the faces of those who find love and intimacy in ways unfamiliar to the majority of the population, one may reconsider their idea of what intimacy and love is.
This is the exact sentiment which “Embrace” is intended to instill in its viewers. It braves the question: “What does intimacy look like?” Although a small collection of photographs may not be able to answer that question alone, “Embrace” serves as a lovely reminder that love is just as diverse as we are.
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