One bright summer morning, seven young men and women drive away from the billboards and the traffic jams, the neon chatter and the constant digital stimulation of their lives. After walking deep into the mountains, they abandon their clothing, along with the labels that have hung heavily around their necks: “promising student,” “stoner fuck-up,” “favorite son,” “vulnerable daughter.” Liberated from the limits that have defined them, they proceed to paint each other from head to toe in richly pigmented bear fat, further obscuring their former selves and setting the stage for the ultimate experience of freedom and resurrection.

The second photographic and short film project in artist Jim Mangan’s trilogy about rebirth, Color’d presents a very contemporary answer to a theme that is as old as the mountains and as universal as sunshine. Shot in saturated instant film and grainy 35 mm film, Color’d is set among the high alpine lakes of northern Utah’s Uinta Mountains and depicts a journey of stepping outside the increasingly narrow confines of modern America to literally paint anew one’s identity.

“For me, Color’d represents a journey where there exists no boundaries, an escape from everyday society into a world where anything seems possible,” says Mangan. “But really, it can be anything you’d like it to be.” As the naked, painted young men and women explore lakes, meadows and mountainsides, Mangan’s lens captures the unfolding—and at times uncomfortable—sense of renewal they experience in this landscape of utter possibility. Uncomfortable, because the paint has also inked over their very identities, until all that remains are blank—if bright—canvases on which they are free to redefine themselves.

Color’d is published by Dashwood Books, NY, NY. Alejandro Jodorowsky personally provided the song, Enitierro Del Primer Juguete, which he composed for his film, El Topo, to be used as the main song for the Color'd short film. A solo exhibition of Color'd was held at Country Club Projects, Los Angeles, 2011. It was part of two group exhibitions in New York City and Moscow in both 2011 and 2012. Vice magazine published it as the cover and feature in the 2011 Vice Photo Issue. It will be featured in the next issue of Dorade, Paris, 2013.

At 8:30pm following the book signing there will be an after party held with complimentary drinks at Martha Otero Gallery (820 N. Fairfax, approximately 3 blocks north of Family), which is currently exhibiting Jim Mangan's latest project, Time of Nothing.
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