Poor presentation
The exhibition's venue doesn't help matters. TIVAC's arrangement of Kon's photos is hardly what you would expect of one of the better-known art galleries in a nation known for fine photographers. Visitors to the center first see Kon's self-portrait with a chronology of her life and works hung to its side. The remainder of what is exhibited, however, is maddeningly hung without any method and often repeated. On one wall hangs a large portrait of a chicken stretched over a guitar. Turn the corner and there it is again, only smaller. In truth, there are only a dozen or more prints and many of these are duplicated and even triplicated. By the time you're ready to visit the basement, you're afraid you've seen it all already. For the most part, you have.
This is a shame not only for its lack of curatorial vision, but for the sparsity of Kon's works. Most of the series that are on display are incomplete. More disappointingly, the artist has several other visceral series -- of which that not-so-sexy lingerie mentioned above is part -- that aren't hung at all. References to these works are made in the chronology hung next to Kon's self-portrait, but anyone interested in seeing prints from these missing series must look for one of Kon's books of prints. Unfortunately, TIVAC doesn't have any of these either.
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