Zoe Leonard's "Display" at Maxwell Graham

"Display" at Maxwell Graham displays new photographic work from Zoe Leonard. Six medium size photos of suits of armor, originally taken at the Musée de l’Armée and the Worcester Art Museum in the 1990s, attract attention amid the gallery’s white walls and high ceilings. Sandwiched to the walls with only pins and sheets of plexiglass, there is an undeniable sparseness to the show. This is to Leonard’s favor, bringing both the content of what is displayed and the intent in the act of displaying to the forefront.

While a knight in armor may capture a sense of masculine heroism, empty suits as seen in Display I(1990/2025) seem more like shells; The masculine becomes evident as performance. The clunky, borderline comedic poses of the armor further undercut any sense of heroism. What remains then, in addition to performance, is the implication of violence. 

Leonard has historically used photography to question and confront looking and how something is made to be looked at. In this lens, one questions not only the violence inherent in the armor, but also in the display case itself – that armor on display, valorizing it, and that displays isolate what they contain, stripping it of context. In an era where there is a renewed focus on masculine violence and cruelty from the state, the hollow nature of these suits ring more true.