This haiku was inspired by a little treasure I found yesterday... about 150 shots of ancient sx-70 polaroid film. In the last 6 years this film has been frozen through two Minnesota winters (a big no no) and heated in a shed (a big no no). But I decided to shoot it all up casually. The caustic spills out everytime, adding some excitement to my life. Orange dots and stripes appear readily and the exposure is far less predictable than usual. I call this set 8:15 AM.
So yesterday was the unofficial end to my class which coincided with the PRC's lecture series. Andres Serrano met with the students for the final interview and it was spectacular. The mp3 will be up shortly! The students, again, expressed how wonderful it was for Al's students to listen to their efforts with Christenberry. I think that made them realize a few things about what they can do in life. Thanks again, Al!
The long drive to Chicago was well worth the trouble. Apparently I came one weekend too early and missed a pile of excellent photo shows opening for the big Chicago art fairs... oh well.
First stop, R.A.S.P.H. at Edelman Gallery. Sorry, I didn't take installation images, Catherine Edelman would not have appreciated that. So... go see the show when it makes it's way around to you. The work was beautiful. It's mounted to Aluminum. The print itself has weight and thickness due to the work done to the print, but yet the finish is perfectly even and deceptive.
This set of work runs along the same theme as their previous series, but is actually more somber. My theory is that the work was purposefully not as playful with the imagery in order to maintain seriousness when color was introduced... but that was just my thought. It is a small show, but provides so much to contemplate and simply stare at.
After that I hit MCA's Exposed show. It was a gathering of what they see to be some of the most influential work over the last 40 years. It was a terrific show, arranged by catagories of 1) Constructed 2) Portrait 3) Appropriation.
Yes, the museum did understand that those are just parts of the medium during that time, but they couldn't do everything and have such a great, cohesive show. The highlights for me... an Alfredo Jaar installation and the Ed Ruscha books (which I have always under-appreciated.)
I was blown away by the perfect quality of Nathan Baker's prints when they showed up here in Minneapolis, but seeing more at Schneider Gallery was a huge treat. Seriously, these prints are amazing to look at, technically unsurpassed and conceptually interesting. I really thought that this piece had broke off the wall, there is even a hole where it breaks the drywall, but apparently it is a very clever hoax... LOVE IT! Sinatra has been in my head since. Ah, Chicago, that's my kind of town.
I need your help. Do not mistake this for pitiful begging like a cowardly dog, for that is NOT my way. I would like your opinion, despite the potential hit to my fragile pride, on this new artist statement. I revised this one for the older set of work because I wanted something much shorter. The question is whether it makes sense (in the most minimal way.)? Some of the spots I want my work really only publish short statements not as explanations, but introductions, so keep this in mind.
Enjoy.
Wandering about one morning in the low country, the young man finds a strange structure in the middle of nowhere. At once, as he has always done with encountered oddities, he theorizes its purpose. Using photography, storytelling and concepts of modern physics, the dilapidated and half-sunken building is given new reality. Similar to a physicist, who must recontextualize scenarios in order to describe the distant abstractions that cannot be probed with human senses, Jay Gould applies ideas of science to the curiosities encountered in his observations. His large scale photographs question limits, boundaries, and received assumptions in order to present the viewer with a unique view of reality that, like modern physics, uses aesthetic judgment and contemplation as its prime yardstick and blurs the line between science and art.
My notebook is in New York and I am in Alabama.... Can someone remind me what the websites are for the free little books that Aishman told us about? Thanks.