Revised Artist Statement: Take 3

It’s taken a while, and I’m still not completely content (will I ever be?), but I’m an artist who deals with the photographic medium. I take photographs and I make movies.  I’m most interested in how the subject (I prefer to have one subject in my frame) interacts with their surroundings and the viewer. Most of my subjects are aware that there will be a viewer, but they don’t know who it is. They aren’t exactly sure why I want to take their picture. However, I choose them because I see them as someone who has become a chameleon to the space.  They need the space and the space needs them. But, this is my opinion and I use digital manipulation to enhance my own beliefs.

I take a lot of time and care in my process. My photos are taken with a long shutter speed on film, which in turn, begs my subjects to be still.  This allows for a certain element of awkwardness. These days a photo can be taken in 1/500 of a second. I’m taking around two minutes to focus my camera and to take the photo. I’m making the subject frozen in time—I’m catching a moment and stretching it for as long as possible. 

Go to the Art Institute RIGHT NOW.

Free February and the basement photo gallery is housing some amazing works right now. The exhibition is titled, "In the Vernacular."  

I just discovered Tina Barney because of the exhibit. She's does what David Benjamin Sherry does with color but one hundred times better. 

I also enjoyed this photograph by Larry Sultan:

Looking Up or Into Grids

Review of Megan Lee's Work from 2/5

At her work's basic core, Megan makes grids. Her work exhibits lines intersecting, or barely intersecting, with other lines; shapes becoming shapes; shapes almost becoming shapes. There is a rhythm to her work. There is a past, future, and present. 

Last Friday Megan presented two pieces. Both pieces were barely discernible when I first walked into the space. For one of her works, the above statement must sound obvious, because it was a projection of strings cross-cutting each other. We were only able to view this piece once Megan turned off the overhead lights and flipped on the projector. The projection created its own space in the corner of the room. At first the corner resembled a jail cell but upon further examination, the grid felt a lot safer. Some people, such as Kelly, didn’t want to step into the space, but others, like Tina, really enjoyed being in the shadows of the grid. Zac gave Megan the parameters to do this work, and the parameters were to use string as a surface, to play with a corner, to use light in some way, and to read at least one remark every hour while working (from Wittgenstein’s “Remarks on Color”). Even though the material for the sculpture was laid across the projection screen, a space was created from light and shadow, and the space felt monumental.

Megan’s second piece was created from parameters she gave to herself. She had to use string as the main material, break or blur the framing edge, and employ a duality or dichotomy. As I already mentioned, my eye didn’t go to Megan’s sculpture when I walked into the room. Just like Malevich’s Supremacists Composition: White on White, this work was white string on white wall. If I had to guess, I would say that Megan completed Zac’s parameter project before working with the white string sculpture, for it plays with both light and [absence of] color. Once lights were directly pointed over the strings, shadows created a three-dimensional quality to what appeared to be a flat piece. The work consisted of two grids whose horizontal lines could intersect with each other if there wasn’t space in between them. Therefore, the blank, middle space was given agency—it was charged. I originally perceived the horizontal lines to not intersect with each other, but as I moved around the piece I realized that this was not the case. However, the viewer immediately begins to wonder how the two grids interact with each other in the space between them.

I can’t wait to see what else Megan is working on. I especially appreciated the sculptural aspects to her work this time around. The sketch and collage grids have changed immensely now that Megan is working with light, shadow, string, and potentially color. At first I thought her work was subtle, but that’s only upon first glace. Megan’s work says a lot about how we see and feel, the viewer just needs to take more than a moment to let it all sink in. 

Abby's Parameters

A sample: