“theanyspacewhatever” and “Catherine Opie: American Photographer” at the Guggenheim, New York

The portraits of drag kings, queer couples, performers and tattoo artists were clearly the main draw of the show, but Opie’s photos of her family and domestic everyday activities were what drew me in. Although they document banal themes and activities, their framing and lighting are compelling and you get the sense that Opie is one of those photographers that just never stops making pictures to the point that the camera’s lens informs the way she looks at and frames the world around her.

Equally remarkable are her polaroids of her television set during important world events like Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 presidential debates (which for some reason are not available to download on the Guggenheim’s website). As are a separate room of incredible photographs of performance artist Ron Athey recreating his previous performance works in a small, dark room that is actually the world’s largest polaroid camera.

At larger than life size, it is hard to believe they are made with an instant camera, but Opie uses the strange medium to her and the subjects’ advantage, rendering eerie baroque-inspired scenes restaged by one of the 20th century’s most provocative performance artists. Accompanied by a new catalogue of Opie’s work, the exhibition was funded in part by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation: no small wonder considering how much Opie’s work seems inspired by Mapplethorpe’s commercial and fine art photography.