That is at least one reason why these images by Peter Freitag from his series Private Stages work so well. By collaging over images of nudes found on the internet, the staging area of the image becomes the center of attention, and all the clues that these stages inform us with become the main presence. Just knowing that something has been obfuscated, and knowing what it was, in this case a nude photo found online, catalogs the evidence of what could be an innocent rug or chair, into an absence, more profoundly than its presence.
As though touching the unsuspecting nudes with his magic wand, these absent shapes take on anime-like spirits made up of waves of bubbles, beautiful and playful as images that stand on their own. I also love Freitag's nod to the original models by leaving their names as titles of each work.
