New York Cool

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1 New York Cool INTERVIEW Cynthia Karalla Plays The Piano Anusha Alikhan Talks To Cynthia Karalla A piano made from penises. A photo montage of phall-a-see. Long and thick, an ivory pale, is the natural key G. A black knight, B flat, stretched smooth above it, primed for play. The note C, contrasting white, slouches slightly, hat drooping, as if hit too often in the same symphony. This Baby Grand is made of men s skin and woman s sweat. Each of the 88 keys a different cock, white ones for the scale C major, black ones for the sharps all flaccid, some circumcised, some not, together a keyboard. Curiously, musically, inclined.

2 The life size photographic print sat on Cynthia Karalla s work table in her Spanish Harlem apartment. The idea for the project came to her in a dream. Cynthia, a 40-something artist (who coyly refused to provide her exact age), was visiting Paris at the time. I was laughing in my sleep, and I woke myself up. A friend in the next room asked what I was laughing at, and I told her I just had a dream about a piano keyboard made up of penises. She said that s fantastic – where are you going to shoot it? Cynthia is a trim, elegant woman with dark ruffled hair, and pensive olive eyes that seem to notice everything. When she speaks she has a particular energy in which she immerses her words, making them somehow spring forward with all the intensity of their purpose. One – (Zev and Zack) – Flash Painting For the past twenty years she has been creating art that promotes controversy in the light that she perceives it as a gateway to open dialogue and free thought. From her initial abstract expressionist oil paintings, to her sketches with the sewing machine, hot iron prints, canvas sculptures, and painted cars, this is the unifying theme of her art. Controversy is the way to discussion. She explained. Only when people have an open dialogue, can they reverse their social conditioning, see things in a new way, and look at them completely differently. Her works hang in the MOMA, the New York Public Library, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York. She has completed exhibitions at the National Academy of the Arts, the Gershwin Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Arts, to name a few. She has also taken part in exhibitions all over Europe, including the Pels-Leusden Galerie, in Zurich in which her photo recreation of Madonna in the Chair was displayed along side Picasso paintings in an exhibition entitled Humanities. Cynthia began experimenting with photographic art in 2001 on the advice of her friend, renowned photographer Andres Serrano. The Baby Grand Piano is one of six major photographic projects she has worked on since that time. The project began in Italy, where she has rented a house every summer for the past five years. She was initially stumped as to where she could find models for the delicate design and debated shooting the project in New York, as opposed to the small town of Matera, Italy, where she thought models would be more accessible. But an encouraging Italian friend in Matera gave her a head start. I told him about the project and I told him that I didn t think I d be able to do it. And he said What are you kidding? I know all the gay men in Italy, I will bring them all to you! To prepare for the project Cynthia set-up a photo studio in her hotel room, and spent two weeks practicing lighting and angle techniques. I knew what kind of lighting I wanted. I didn t want it to be clinical or harsh. I wanted something that was soft, not shocking, and more pleasing to the eye. So I practiced for a while on pepperoni and sausages trying to get it right. When news of the project got out women started bringing boyfriends, husbands, and brothers to pose for Cynthia. In order to dispel rumors that the project was illicit, even a high-ranking police officer offered to model.

3 Cynthia returned to New York to complete the project but to her surprise found it much more difficult to find men who would volunteer to bare-all for the Baby Grand. But a 45-year-old sales executive in Manhattan, who preferred to remain anonymous, did rise to the occasion. He was introduced to Cynthia through a friend who knows his wild side, and suggested him as a model for the project. I was so turned on by the idea of being exposed, not only would I show off to this woman, not in a sexual way, or I guess semi-sexual. But I would show off eventually to the world. That was a big turn on for me. Despite the camera being 10 inches away from his penis, he was comfortable with the structured atmosphere that Cynthia created, and her extreme focus. In fact, at times he was almost too relaxed. I m probably not the only one. At one point I started getting an erection, because I was very turned on, and so she just stopped shooting. She said, Ok, easy boy, easy, down we both laughed, I took a deep breath and went back to my normal stage, he explained with easy candor. Having seen the piece, he is taken by the amount of hard work and talent that went into it, but is somewhat disappointed that he cannot recognize his own penis. That is not a secret that Cynthia will tell, as it goes to the root of the piano s intent to expose that men are alike despite their differences. If you understand everything that s inside of yourself then you understand everything s that s outside of yourself, she explained. So by starting with the body, and really knowing it, you can understand all the layers [on the] outside. Because basically we re all pretty much the same, we cry, we laugh, there s a basic goodness in every person. Shooting the Piano, 2004 Photo MB. Acosta Cynthia herself has had her fair share of tears and triumphs. She spent her early years in an upper-class Grosse Pointe, Michigan household. When she was eight-years old, her father, a Lebanese immigrant, died in a boating accident. His death unraveled a family secret the woman Cynthia had known as her mother, and had lived with in their family home, was in-fact her stepmother. Her biological mother was a French-Canadian immigrant who had divorced her father just after Cynthia was born. My Dad died and life just changed instantly for me. My real mother, who I had never met, reappeared. So they began going back and forth as to who was going to get custody of me. And I knew I didn t want to live with my mother. I did not like her. I don t know if I had hatred for her for all-of-a sudden showing up. When you re a child you have an ideal picture of how life is supposed

4 to be, but the reality of the fact is that when you re child you don t know what an adult goes through. And so me being a child I could never forgive her. Cynthia perceived the lengthy custody battle between her mother and her step-mother as a monetary dispute over what was left of her father s estate, rather than a genuine interest in her well-being. So given the choice between living with either women and staying at a home for neglected children, Cynthia opted for the latter. On her first Christmas alone, she ran away. The authorities caught-up with her a few days later when they discovered her cousins were helping her hide. After six escape attempts from another detention center Cynthia was finally successful. At 13, she headed to Ann Arbor Michigan, taking refuge in the homes of University of Michigan students. In Ann Arbor it s easy to find a place to crash, it s a university town. And so there were these five guys that were going to the University of Michigan, they lived on Thompson Street. And there were these five girls living on Church Street. And so between the two houses I never had a problem. All these people loved when I stayed with them, because I couldn t take it if it was dirty, so I would always clean-up for them. She lived in Ann Arbor for almost two years relying on odd jobs and the sewing skills she had learned from her grandmother by designing and selling clothes to college students. She then decided to hire a lawyer, who was eventually able to clear her juvenile record and facilitate her placement in a foster home in Ann Arbor. My foster parents were just absolutely divine. But I had a lot of problems when I was a kid, and it was difficult for my foster parents with me. I put Marlene [her foster mother] through hell with her trying to prove her love to me, because I didn t trust anybody s love. It s a hard thing what I had been through and her trying to reach me, she was the faithful mother I never was blessed with. Cynthia attended high-school sporadically but did not complete 12th grade, despite being promised a full scholarship to Michigan upon graduation based on her performance on a high-school placement exam. Instead she developed a drug habit, cutting classes with her friend to get high. Throughout her adolescence she was wrought with feelings of self-blame. My foster parents were going through a difficult period, where they were considering divorce, and this is how I looked at it as a child– my parents got divorced when I was born and there was always trouble, so I started to think that I was bad luck. And you don t want to hurt people you care about that are around you, so I thought it was me, I thought I was bringing them [her foster parents] bad luck and if I left they would find themselves. Goldie – Seconds 2007 Cynthia hitched a ride to New York, and left her foster home behind. A friend told her about an empty apartment on the Upper East Side that was waiting to be sublet. She became close with a neighbor, and was able to move in with her when the apartment was eventually rented. Her early education in art began on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum, where she and an eighteenyear-old art student, who lived in the same apartment building, would sell their own personal replicas of masterpieces to museum goers for $500 a pop. She returned to her foster home after four months, with a drug habit, and very little faith.

5 There was one time when I left Marlene and she was crying really badly, I took too many Valiums because I was totally emotionally distraught at the time and I just said ok I m just going to rid myself of the earth and instead of ODing like, dying, here was Marlene over me, waking me up, and crying, like, hysterically, and then I realized how much I was hurting her. Sometimes I think it s like when you re in this, you don t know how much you re in it. And that s why I don t drink, I don t do any kinds of drugs whatsoever. It was at 17, when Cynthia was arrested for drug possession that she decided to turn her life around. After spending another year in Michigan, she got a job as a fitting model in New York, and with her savings, was able to open a Delicatessen in Long Island with her then boyfriend. Following a bad break-up, she walked away from the Delicatessen business and signed up for interior design classes, at CW Post in Long Island, working nights at a finance company to pay for courses. I ended up working from 12 to 4 o clock, and slept for maybe four hours, or I stayed-up and did homework. Entertainment Humanity After reviewing her work, a professor at CW Post recommended she pursue a more challenging career in architecture at the New York Institute of Technology, she completed her GED, and transferred, undertaking a work study program to pay for expenses. Soon afterwards based on her performance she was offered a scholarship to continue at the school.

6 She related these stories of her youth in minute detail playing race car games with her father on the living room carpet, the gray walls of the detention center, the cold seats of cars that she was sometimes forced to sleep in. She was immersed. Immersed but still composed, she laughed at her childhood antics, and remembered her father with a soft smile and a wistful gaze. There was a definite tension coating her voice, but also a realization that her life was now about moving forward. Walking through her apartment is like taking a tour of her head. Save some intermittent roommates, Cynthia has lived there alone since As her friend and printer Esteban Mauchi described, Even the cracks have her signature. The art on display, which she has chosen from her own collection, represents each stage of her evolution as an artist and as a person engendering her feminism, skepticism of religion, and an acute awareness of human strength and frailty, both so evident in her own history. It is as though the walls, exposed brick facing royal blue or rose red, have absorbed her essence and become daring somehow. In the hallway hangs a size 52F brassiere, from her Busted series, hardened and painted over in metallic bronze, the words The Woman Within scrawled on the canvas– a testament to feminist power, and society s obsession with breasts. The bathroom is covered in quarter size pieces of jagged mirrors that fit together precisely, like a grand puzzle of reflection; the project took Cynthia 3 months to finish. The walls blue in the living room frame a series of photographs from her Humanities series, which recreated old world masterpieces, Mona Lisa, le Cardinal, and Jeanne D Arc with a Karalla twist. In the Middle of the room amidst antique furniture hangs the Crucifixion, which Cynthia has coined Entertainment a photo of a would-be Jesus– head hanging, arms splayed. In Cynthia s version Jesus is a lily white eighteen year old girl dressed in a thin muslin wrap, a strand of pearls resting above her bare breasts, blond hair shining like raw corn in the sun. Like many of Cynthia s art this piece addresses her skepticism of the Catholic Church, translating worship into a form of entertainment. In Mona Lisa, Da Vinci s masterpiece has been recreated the same mystery in the eyes, the same teasing lips, but for a lush carpet of chest hair on the sexy man that embodies her. Nelson Kuperberg, an interior designer, who purchased a print of the Mona Lisa from Cynthia after attending one of her open house events said, What struck me most about the photograph was the extreme painterly quality of the piece. It is lit and executed as if it is a high renaissance painting. Like the Mona Lisa, each one of Cynthia s works, has a roaring message to send. Cynthia is comfortable with controversy. Not because she is trying to be scandalous but because she is not afraid to provoke. Intrepid is the best word I can use to describe her said her cousin s wife, Mary Beth Acosta. And this applies to both her lifestyle and her art. She gets a vision and simply goes there, moving over controversy as easily as she crosses the Atlantic Ocean to Italy.

7 Untitled Humanity For Cynthia vision, controversy, and Italy form a great alliance. She became fascinated with Italy while she was visiting her friend Dorothy Zinn in I think Cynthia picked up on what so

8 many artists and film directors have noticed about Italy: it has a particular light, said Zinn. Of course there is also all the artistic and architectural heritage present here [and] I think that Cynthia is also very intrigued by the people. It is true that you see people walking around that have these amazingly striking faces, like they just came out of a renaissance painting. Since 2001 Cynthia has returned yearly and the country has spawned the birth of many of her projects. The models who took part in the Humanities series, including Mr. Mona were chosen amongst friends, acquaintances, and strangers she met on the cobble stoned streets of Matera. Madonna in the Chair Humanity Her Saints series photographed in churches across Italy, spans the walls of her hallway, profiling the giant stone faces of sculptured saints tongues slashed, angelic faces strewn with blood the intricate lighting bringing them to life. The pictures, almost poetic in form emphasize

9 the extreme beauty of the porcelain saints and yet something ugly, silently stressing both religion s goodness and its iniquity. To Cynthia, who when asked what religion she is, answers None, the pictures represent the perfect conundrum of religion, Who doesn t really want to be a good person? she exclaimed, Everybody wants to be a good person, nobody wants to be thought of as horrible and ugly, nobody wants to be that way, but with the rules of Catholicism, I mean you re condemned! The breadth and diversity of her pieces are testament to her own reasons for entering the art world to connect with its freedom. In 1984 she was making a comfortable living as an architect, at Michael Lynn, a high-profile New York firm. She had dropped-out of the New York Institute of Technology a year before finishing her architecture degree, because of a creative dispute with one of her professors. She wanted me to do it her way and her way had no vision it wasn t my way, Cynthia explained. Despite her early departure, based on her portfolio, she was hired at Michael Lynn as an associate designer, where she worked off and on until Stressed out from working long hours, and remembering her childhood passion for art, she began painting, and started taking courses at the Art Students League of New York. Soon afterwards she received word that her aunt had died. She flew to her home state of Michigan for the funeral. When she returned to work she was told that she was being offered a raise in exchange for working more hours, due to increasing lay-offs. I just said do you mind if I leave now? And they thought I was leaving for the day. And I just never went back. As if by fate, two days later she learned that due to her painting course instructor s recommendation, she had received an unsolicited scholarship to the Art Students League to pursue a career in the arts. She first entered the art world through oil painting on canvas and then moved towards more ambitious projects including painting whole cars in abstract patterns. In an earlier project entitled Rolle Back, Cynthia took apart the inside of a canvas, and recreated it as an enormous spiral of color, the lines like the raw surface of a precisely sliced tree trunk. In commenting on the piece, Cynthia wrote, We have painted on the front and the back of the canvas, but never the inside. Where as we ourselves work on canvas to expose our insides, it is now the canvas that exposes its inside. The juxtaposition of two conflicting themes is a technique Cynthia repeatedly uses in her art. The Baby Grand Piano, which is being prepared for exhibition, symbolically addresses homophobia, racism, society s fear of diversity and the taboos attached to sex. You must touch to play. So it s the touch, don t touch issues, the black and white, the circumcised, uncircumcised. Also each note, just as each penis, has a different feel. The piano embodies our social conscience, she explained. Remembering a cousin who reasoned that she circumcised her son so he would look like his daddy, Cynthia highlights society s drive towards uniformity and away from diversity. Though each key is different they form one instrument with an infinite ability to create music. And that is just Cynthia s version. Her friend Zelda Kaplan sees it as promoting brotherhood, by declaring without apology that we all come from the same human family. Dorothy Zinn, who was present when Cynthia s first started the photo shoots in Italy, said For me, in our society which dissects the female body and splatters its pieces everywhere around us, it s a refreshing change to see a woman take the penis by itself and make it a central focus. It s interesting how so many men feel terribly threatened by this. She s literally grabbed at phallic power. The varying interpretations of the Baby Grand spark the kind of open dialogue that Cynthia loves. The piano project will be very controversial as to changing the mind as to how to look at something, [and] how we ourselves have been conditioned to see things, she said. It is this desire to challenge convention that is most evident in Cynthia s art that plays upon her Baby Grand like great a opus. Her music is conscious, pushing past barriers, and fueling debate, as she has always done. She plays the piano like an artist willing her canvas to speak.