New art exhibit on superheroes & identity

As we've noted here & on Blog@, charities have learned that superheroes are a good draw for fundraisers and exhibits. One interesting example of the trend just opened up in Idaho: the Sun Valley Center for the Arts' show on Superheroes and Secret Identities.

Below: the featured artists. Above: part of the fascinating portfolio of Dulce Pinzon.

Mark Newport knits superhero costumes to his own size. Hanging empty on the wall, these large disembodied costumes comment on traditional notions of masculine identity and our idealization of unattainable powers. He also photographs himself dressed in costume, prepared for disaster in mundane settings, and creates his own embroidered and illustrated comic book pages.

Dulce Pinzón photographs Mexican immigrants in popular U.S. and Mexican superhero costumes as they work at generally low-wage jobs. She captions each photo with a note about how much each worker sends home to his or her family each week, forcing us to reconsider our ideas of what a superhero really is. While super powers may be beyond our grasp in reality, the Internet has given all of us the chance to adopt alternate identities and extraordinary abilities in cyberspace.

Robbie Cooper has traveled the globe photographing computer gamers who spend hours each day in online worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft. He pairs his photographs with images of these gamers' online avatars, offering provocative insight into the online world of fantasy role-play.