Lets talk a bit about your process, I know your work is made up of multiple photographs to create the larger image – what brought you to such a complex approach to building your images?
This question really ties in with the Photoshop as a tool question. I like photoshop. I wouldn’t be making the color work that I am today without it. I’ve got an older iMac and with large files, a gig and over, when you zoom in or out it renders in big blocky sections. The first of my color prints “Foamcore” (below) is built from six photographs in Photoshop. I did this in order to create a high resolution print. In order to make the print seamless I had to overcome issues of perspective, vignetting, and color variations. While seamless is what I achieved in “Foamcore” I wanted to make another piece that used seams, disjointed imagery and obvious perspective anomalies. This led to “Extension Cord” and “Bookcase” (above).
I like the peculiarities of single perspective. By building “Bookcase” out of many different perspectives these peculiarities become more evident. It’s also a way to imply that any photograph is built from many decisions, a nod to the idea that all pictures are from the subjective view of the photographer.
The images that you produce; electrical cords, foam core, books, etc. are all pretty banal. How do these images relate, is it through the banal approach or is there a collective unconscious to the selection/approach of the subjects?
All of the objects I photograph are mine. I like them. They are generic, almost iconic within the works, but to me they are specific. Through high school and college I almost solely wore white t-shirts. My studio is in the basement along with a small wood shop and storage shelves. I end up walking over extension cords and past my lawnmower (below) on a daily basis. I don’t photograph Apple computers or copper frying pans because I don’t want to celebrate the easy appeal of these objects. Most of my life I’m surrounded by ordinary things like extension cords, brooms, saws, and garden hoses. I like these things for their utilitarian function and character. I photograph them because while they are personal to me they don’t cloud the finished work with sensational connotations.
I like this quote from Joyce Carol Oates, referring to Yeats,”How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty?” I particularly like “are not most thought banal”. I think most thoughts are banal as well as most things. But I also think mundane and precious don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I feel warm towards the things I photograph.
I’m not after nostalgia at all. While these are specific objects for me, I want them to be generic to the viewer. By keeping the object that’s in the photograph ordinary I can call attention to the decisions I’ve made regarding how it’s represented.
I have only seen photographs of your new work on display at The Lawrimore Project, one of these seems to break with what I would call traditional photography and becomes sculptural – this seems to be quite a break with your past work (at least to my small knowledge of your entire body of work) how did this occur and what brought you to enter the third dimension (as it were)?
The “Lawnmower” was made in 2003. It and “Self portrait” are made practically the same way. In both an object was set on photographic paper that ran under the object and up the wall behind. In the case of “Self portrait” I chose to display the image flat. As a side note, I made this piece in Rome, where I was quite interested in marble and concrete figurative sculpture.
Although “Lawnmower” is the only piece that projects into the room, it plays to the question that spurs much of my work, “How does photography describe something” in this case the work highlights the absence of the subject.
Who are the artists you are looking at right now (new or old)?
I just saw the Matta-Clark retrospective at the Whitney and loved it. So much of his work is relevant to photography. His sections of freestanding walls are like an extreme expression of “taking a photograph”. I also frequently think of Lucas Sameras’s polaroids, the way he drew on the print surface conflating the represented and the factual. Maybe even more than the formal achievements of his work I find his personal reflection inspiring. I also think of Jim Dyne and Robert Rauschenberg.
We met initially in Miami this year, where it seems you had quite a successful introduction of your work to a larger audience, How has that been and what is next for you after this current show winds down?
It felt fantastic to have people look and think about my work. These objects are very personal to me. I’ve thought about them a lot and it was great to see other people considering them. The current show at Lawrimore Project showcases important moments for me, photograms, building an image from many single points of view, and running through out the work are my ideas regarding portraiture.
Currently I’m working on a show based on my residence in Seattle. While the “Bookcase” hid the book titles it revealed much more about my home that other works before, hard wood flooring, white trim etc. By drawing on aspects of cataloging and documentary I’m continuing to describe my place from the inside out. It’s a little like taking pictures from inside the belly of a whale.
