Chris Komater: THUNDERCRACK!

March 24th, 2023 – April 29th, 2023

Chris Komater’s Thundercrack! is a series of photographic grids made from images of light falling on a large hairy man’s legs and underside.  The images are arranged to resemble bolts of lighting, streaking across the night sky.  Seeking alternate ways of presenting a body type that has historically received little artistic attention, Komater focuses not on the body itself, but on how light softly illuminates its sensual qualities.  Komater creates a different kind of visual encounter with this body type to take us away from what we think we might know about it, and to experience it in a new way.

Thundercrack! gets its title from the 1975 underground film of the same name by filmmakers Curt McDowell and George Kuchar.  The film is a classic pornographic horror comedy that has little to do with Komater’s photographic installation, other than naked bodies and Komater’s fondness for appropriation and exclamation points.