THE TRANSPARENT BEDROOM Stephen Frailey Despite thirty years of feminist discourse that has influenced many areas of society, the marketing formula of youth, skin, beauty, and seduction continues to not only survive and endure in popular culture but seemingly becomes more explicit and aggressive daily. It could be argued that as global cultures accept, capitulate, or embrace facets of western and capitalist culture, cheesecake merchandising is an inevitable part of the pact. Betel nut culture, as represented in the inventive and entertaining images by Chin- pao Chen, is an index of this enduring phenomenon, (taking cues from Vegas showgirls, trade show hostesses, and school girl fantasies) in a format that participates in an infantile theatricality, however flimsy and makeshift. Not only is the phenomenon familiar, but also the conversation in the Taiwan press about whether this is a healthy expression of budding sexuality or an abusive sideshow that exploits both the salesperson as well as the consumer. The photographs of Chin-pao Chen mostly avoid this moral dilemma and document the spectacle with affection and without judgement. With a great deal of formal intelligence, the photographs seem to celebrate and honor the individuality of the betel nut girls with both humor and empathy, and their occupation representing a part of human nature. With the illusion of the transparent bedroom, the phenomenon posits the voyeur’s familiar violation of the private translated to theatre and spectacle. Although constructed for nocturnal consumption, Chin- pao has chosen to reveal its artifice by representing it most often in the day. And like most voyeuristic constructions, seeks to erase borders of public and private. The photographs depict a jewel box perched along the cluttered concrete roadway, the suggestion of friendship and flesh, however puerile, in a hostile urban chaos. The photographs cross-reference Edward Hopper’s melancholic interiors with the burlesque of Reginald Marsh.The majority of the images reinforce the theatre by maintaining a careful framing around the event and indulging in a form of portraiture. Occasionally, however, the context of this event undermines the construct, and true pathos is reveled. It is in these more spontaneous images, often in gritty black and white, in which realism trumps fantasy, sleaze infiltrates glamour and truth is stranger than fiction, that the uncomfortable subject of this inventive collection resides.

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