Michael Weinstein

Transformation is the name of Belgian photographer Pierre Radisic's game in his series of diptychs of female nudes where one black-and-white image is positive and the other negative. Choosing subjects with copious birthmarks, Radisic presents them unsparingly in his positive prints, warts and all. The contrast could not be greater when we look at the negative prints, in which the birthmarks sparkle like brilliant white stars on mysteriously iridescent black bodies. Driving home his point that the anti-airbrushed body is heavenly when seen in its proper light, Radisic has had no trouble connecting some of the gleaming points into familiar constellations of stars; the handle of the big dipper winds its way gracefully around a nubile woman's neck, ending with the cup resting on her powerful arm like the pendant of a necklace gone elegantly askew.

Pierre Radisic shows at the John David Mooney Foundation, 114 West Kinzie, (312)822-0483, through August 1.

(2005-07-19)

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