OPENING RECEPTION: 29th January, 6-9p

Introducing Torn Suspense by Yinon Avior Philipsohn. The work originates from images sourced from BDSM pornographic magazines. Selected fragments are scanned, enlarged, and reprinted in layered compositions that expose the mechanics of image production—grain, misregistration, and surface texture—reducing the photographic body to a physical surface.

Each image undergoes a sequence of transformations: a model’s body is photographed, printed, circulated, reclaimed, and reassembled as a quilted object. Through this process, the work interrogates how much alteration a body or image can endure, and how many layers, fragments, and stitches it can hold before the surface begins to tear.

Protective coatings preserve the image, while stitched perforations invite penetration, suspending the work in a state of tension between preservation and breakdown.

 

 

 

In contrast to the classic process of expose–print–display, my photographic work in this project is interlocked with physical presence and the manual labour of sewing, which transforms the photographic surface from a flat image into a tactile body.

Each photographic quilt is a single body, both material and metaphorical, with a unique texture. Beyond the physical volume added through sewing, the glossy finish of the plastic-coated prints produces reflections that interrupt a stable viewpoint. The spectator cannot experience the work as a whole from a single position. The work consists of several photographs layered as broken fragments on top of each other and sewn together, forcing the spectator to follow a deliberately constructed, unwritten choreography. Spatial placement and light function as obstacles rather than neutral conditions, leading to a gradual reveal of the images.

Since 2018, I have developed and worked with photographic quilting using hand-sewn plastic-coated Inkjet prints. From 2018 to 2025, the printed images in this process were based on photographs I shot myself. In this series, however, the source material shifts to BDSM pornographic magazines that did not make it to Tom of Finland Foundation’s library due to their condition.

Selected fragments are scanned, enlarged, and reprinted in multiple layers, exposing the mechanics of their own production, such as grain, misregistration, and surface texture, while bodies lose coherence and become material.

Through this process, a model’s body is photographed, printed in a magazine, reused as source material, and reassembled as a quilted object. The work asks how much a human body can endure, how much damage an image can absorb, and how many stitches a print can take before it tears apart. —Yinon Avior Philipsohn

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OPENING NIGHT

 

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On view by appointment.
Call +1 213 250 1685 with inquiries.

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