Interview with Charles Cohen

In the interview, Charles discusses his Buff Series. This series consisted of pornographic images with the figures cut out. Instead of people in the pictures, there were white-filled silhouettes. Cohen describes how the initial reaction to his piece is expectation. Due to the setting and position of the pieces we expect nudity. We then start to question what is happening and this sets up the "abstract effect". The immediate experience is no longer transparent and we begin to ask questions. During the interview, Cohen also describes how the work revolves around the presence of absence and how the idea surfaced.

I found this interview helpful to better understand the Buff Series and Cohen's perspective on the pieces. This series was actually derived from two photographic series. Some of the characteristics of the pieces  were not planned such as the love/lust differences in the series. I discovered that the main purpose in Cohen's work is to provoke thought and the buff series definitely achieved that.