I'm Dave (mouth) Possibly 1988 - 1994

Curator: Before us, we have a black and white photograph by Jim Goldberg titled "I'm Dave (mouth)", likely created sometime between 1988 and 1994. It's a gelatin-silver print. Editor: The immediate impression is raw and unfiltered. The close-up perspective on just the mouth, rendered in stark monochrome, creates an unsettling intimacy. There's a certain brutal honesty in its form. Curator: The choice of isolating the mouth is powerful. Across cultures, the mouth is laden with symbolism, representing speech, consumption, sensuality. It’s the origin of both sustenance and communication. Goldberg isolates it, forcing us to contemplate what Dave's mouth might signify in this context. Editor: The photographic technique, the way the light falls and creates these textures, heightens that sense of vulnerability. The stark contrast almost turns the flesh into a landscape, focusing our attention on the slight imperfections and emphasizing a powerful and simple message. Curator: Goldberg often uses his work to explore marginalized communities and individual narratives. Could this be about Dave's voice, his story being confined, suppressed, or perhaps ready to be unleashed? A potent cultural symbol of a time that needed stories like this to be seen. Editor: Absolutely, the framing creates an intensity, and maybe a commentary on the disembodied nature of representation itself. It reminds me a little of structuralist ideas around signifiers and signified, only in the grittiest, most corporeal way imaginable. Curator: It is interesting how you call this out, because historically this connects us with different views on what the human face, or just the mouth signifies, and what memories and culture references emerge. It might represent completely different values from different viewers that engage with this image. Editor: It gives you plenty to chew on! No pun intended. Curator: Indeed. The simplicity is deceptive; a lifetime of stories hides behind that mouth.