Conspiracy of Vitrines
dal 4/7/2003 al 27/7/2003
Segnalato da
4/7/2003
Conspiracy of Vitrines
Artspace Gallery, Richmond
Work by Lisa Garfield, Mary Cahill, Jayme McLellan, and Mica Scalin. Conspiracy of Vitrines examines the reification of an experience, fragmented from its surroundings, into a complete miniaturized world. Each artist creates with their work a portal, an aperture through which one can gain access to it, however limited or controlled the perspective may be. The images in a way become proof of their own relevance, in the same way an object in a museum's vitrine takes on the authoritative quality of evidence.
Work by Lisa Garfield, Mary Cahill, Jayme McLellan, and Mica Scalin
Conspiracy of Vitrines examines the reification of an experience, fragmented
from its surroundings, into a complete miniaturized world. Each artist creates
with their work a portal, an aperture through which one can gain access to it,
however limited or controlled the perspective may be. The images in a way become
proof of their own relevance, in the same way an object in a museum's vitrine
takes on the authoritative quality of evidence.
Lisa Garfield's color photographs are rich collages. Where and when is
irrelevant creating a pastiche of time and place. These non-settings are a
journey inspired by her own compulsive tendency to wander. Each image presents
the possibility of intrigue, mystery, and conspiracy in an ambiguous moment.
These large, grainy and saturated photographs full of darkness and void,
transform familiar and banal spaces into the tunnels, pathways that will lead to
a place of discovery.
Mary Cahill's color photographs are haunted places. Each is a story without a
subject, forcing the object to take center stage in humorous yet tragic
tableaux. Cahill describes these images when viewed as a whole, as a "strip mall
of experience," a destination where the commonplace is reframed into a muted
melodrama of dislocation, longing and aspiration. This visual landscape explores
the presence and hold of the familiar, while also questioning ideas of
convention and social expectation.
Jayme McLellan's hand sewn felt quilts and tapestries overlap familiar cultural
iconography and her own personal symbols of representation. In simultaneously
representing Washington, DC as both Our Nation's Capital and McLellan's hometown
there is a sense of detachment and nostalgia. She describes this project as "a
transformation of split second to permanence and reality to dreaming" through
two perspectives of a single place.
Mica Scalin's photographic installation represents the convergence of her
preconceived notions and actual experiences as a visitor in Japan. The Japanese
aesthetic is so intentionally evolved and fully integrated into all aspects of
life, that the temptation to make familiar images based on these ideas is
difficult to avoid. With this installation, she confronts the parallels that
align contemporary cultures and the divergences that keep them from intersecting.
In his essays about small museums of America, Ralph Rugoff writes on the
psychology of display: "you are not required to suspend your disbelief, you are
asked to surrender your comfort of certainty as well as the idea that history
and fiction can be neatly separated." Whether he is referring to the personal or
cultural experience is irrelevant as all experience is now subject to "the hyper
realities and inflated expectations of entertainment." Working from an awareness
of the ever-shifting nature of perception, the artists included in Conspiracy of
Vitrines are confronting the way in which this effects an individuals frame of
reference. Let these images serve as a guide the way, as a tourist, you have
once used a map to direct your gaze. For in this time of blurred boundaries who
is not a disoriented traveler?
- Ralph Rugoff from his book Circus Americanus (Verso 1995, London, New York)
Image: Mary Cahill
Artspace
6 E. Broad Street
Richmond, VA, USA
Phone: 804 7828672
Fax: 804 7829880