[[[pull_quote]]] 

Several of Richard Kern's recent photographs are titled after the cut-rate retailers where he purchases the panties he gets his models to pose in: H & M, Target, etc. Tacking the used underwear to the wall just below their photographic representations, the artist simultaneously distances and brings us close to this certain object of desire. In a recent Q & A, Kern postulates that "art collectors, memorabilia collectors and panty-collecting perverts all share a similar desire to own something that has been by a specific person."

Tongue wagging, the artist attempts to prove this point, presenting us with numerous photographs literally accompanied by used skivvies, and others that expose us to a highly invasive view that can only be touched with the eyes. In Upskirts (2008), Kern places twenty photographs in a grid, each shot from the ground looking directly up the folds of a young woman's skirt. Concentrating on nothing but the thighs and the graphic patterns of the threadbare panties between them – polka dots, plaids, stripes, and hearts (synthetic and cotton) – the artist teases with the tantalizing proximity of his lens, repeatedly staging scenes of unobstructed voyeurism that use the allure of a sexual fetish to eclipse and/or undermine his artistry.

In Divided Beauty (H & M) (2008), Kern places flesh-colored boy shorts and a bralette between two color prints of different models sporting the ensemble. The double portrait blatantly borrows from the pornographic genre. But is it pornography? This two-for-one erotic configuration hints at a certain packaged anonymity, suggesting that anyone can easily slip in and out of the generic pose as well as the mass-market undies that seem to be there for the taking.

"Richard Kern" originally appeared in the December 2008 / January 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' December 2008 / January 2009 Table of Contents.