Todd Hido
dal 20/4/2004 al 29/5/2004
Segnalato da
20/4/2004
Todd Hido
Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco
Roaming, an exhibition of photographs by Todd Hido that presents anonymous and ordinary landscape charged with a hauntingly atmospheric and menacing intensity. Hido captures a momentary shift in our perception of these isolated and innocuous places resulting from a confluence of variable elements of place, time of day, light and weather. Wandering alone by car in areas on the edge of cities and towns throughout America, Hido seeks to record the transformation of the seemingly uninteresting to the theatrical, while evidencing his presence as witness.
Roaming
Stephen Wirtz Gallery announces Roaming, an exhibition of photographs by
Todd Hido that presents anonymous and ordinary landscape charged with a
hauntingly atmospheric and menacing intensity. Hido captures a momentary
shift in our perception of these isolated and innocuous places resulting
from a confluence of variable elements of place, time of day, light and
weather. Wandering alone by car in areas on the edge of cities and towns
throughout America, Hido seeks to record the transformation of the seemingly
uninteresting to the theatrical, while evidencing his presence as witness.
Hido takes continual road trips in places as far removed as Eastern
Washington State, the California Central Valley, Indiana, New Jersey, and
South Louisiana. He locates unpeopled landscapes occupied by only by a few
telephone poles, a single sad tree, or a road leading nowhere that transform
and take on an unreal appearance in these works. Hido often photographs from
the driver's seat and through the car windshield, evidenced in some works by
the slight distortion from the glass, inviting the viewer to experience the
photographer's perspective of being on the inside looking out.
The night studio of House Hunting and Outskirts, Hido's previous bodies of
work, is replaced in many pictures with his utilization of a range of
seasonal daylight effects from the rich glow of Autumn to the shrouded
sunlight of Winter's inclement conditions. Continuous with earlier works,
Hido's landscapes are photographed as encountered by the artist with no
additional arrangement or lighting by the artist to suggest a specific
narrative. However, these scenes take on the appearance of a staged set
where the suspense of something sinister about to happen is palpable, or are
suggestive of a crime scene yet to be discovered.
Vince Aletti of The Village Voice writes: 'A sheared-off tree truck, a
smog-bound path, a tangle of dead brush like burnished gold under a
streetlight—Hido isolates these anonymous sites and renders them as
suspended, cinematic moments primed for the call of 'Action!'
TODD HIDO (b.1968, Kent, OH) received his M.F.A. from the California College
of Arts and Crafts in 1996 and his B.F.A. from the School of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, and Tufts University. His photographs have been exhibited
internationally including solo exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art,
OH, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, and are
included in numerous museum collections including the Guggenheim Museum, the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Roaming, his third monograph with Nazraeli Press will be released in June,
2004.
Opening reception for the artist Thursday, May 6, 2004, 5:30-7:30 pm
Stephen Wirtz Gallery is located at 49 Geary St., 3rd Fl., San Francisco, CA
94108, (415) 433-6879. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 9:30-5:30, Saturday
10:30-5:30.
For additional information please contact Julie Casemore, Tel.: (415)
433-6879
Stephen Wirtz Gallery
49 Geary St., 3rd Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 433-6879 tel.
(415) 433-1608 fax