nelson fitch »

Gail Williams, professor of horn at Northwestern University, in her studio – 09/13/2009

James Daniel, Bookman’s Alley, Evanston

for a couple more: blog.ex-ps.com

James Daniel – 07/22/2009

06/23/2009

Assigning the term photography to the work in Spencer Finch’s Light, Time, Chemistry exhibit at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery seems a bit simplifying. The artist has done more than write with light, the literal meaning of the word photography, in this “photo-based” exhibit (hence “time” and “chemistry” being in the exhibit’s title). In this show, Finch attempts to record the ephemeral and almost abstract components of our environment. The result ends up, not surprisingly, a number of impressionist-like photographs.

What seemed to me the most prominent of his works in this show was Thank You, Fog, a series comprising sixty small color photographs. In this work, time is as essential an element as light. Finch positioned his camera facing a dense forest area, and took one picture every minute for sixty minutes from the exact same location. This documented the fog moving across a small portion of densely wooded area, which can be seen or interpreted several ways. It could be a frustrated, impatient attempt at capturing a landscape in which the fog is an obstacle. It could be a patient portrait of fog, appreciating the object and its nuances as it conceals and reveals the landscape behind it. It could be an attempt at photographing wind. It could simply represent the hour of time in that place. Whether it’s any of those things at all or a combination of them, I question Finch’s method of capturing it. Why sixty photographs? To me it seemed a little excessive – I fail to see what sixty images does that twenty could not do. I understand conciseness was not a goal of his, but it would have been appreciated as a viewer. I felt impatient, and I did not care to inspect every image. Why one minute intervals? I wonder why he chose not to capture the fog at closer intervals, revealing more detail in its movement. The order of the images is unclear, apart from their actual placement on the wall, but maybe that is unimportant. If he wanted to capture the space and time, why not use motion picture? Regardless, Finch succeeded in “capturing and re-contextualizing fleeting and ephemeral elements from our surroundings”(from the press release) in this work. I liked the concept, but I have questions about the execution.

Most similar to Thank You, Fog in this exhibition was Mistral (Avignon). This work consists of two color photographs, again from the exact same location and angle, of water. The ripples in the water of Mistral (Avignon) are the fog inThank You, Fog.  Both can be solutions the to problem posed with the question, “How do you photograph wind?” The ripples distort the reflection in the water, giving this work the most impressionist feel of the works in this show.

Finch explores light and texture of silver in Ag, a series of ten photographs. The medium is appropriately black and white film (silver gelatin), on which an image is made by the oxidation of silver grains suspended in a gelatin mix. The basic concept of photographing texture in Ag becomes more interesting when we realize the photographs are not only of silver but actually are silver. Could he have been more accurate?

Finch writes light and color on the walls of the gallery with Shadow, Sculpture of Centaur, Tuileries (after Atget), apparently reproducing the light in Eugene Atget’s photos of Paris. This is one part of a larger work titled Shadows (after Atget), in which Finch covers fluorescent tubes of light with translucent color filters from Newton’s ROY G BIV spectrum, creating light and shadow that is almost tangible. When I first approached this piece, I was attempting to study the actual light structure, but upon further reading I realized the shadow generated by it was the actual subject. I’m impressed by this creative technique, but I fail to see the connection to Atget.

Finch comes off as a kind of artistic jack-of-all-trades in his approach to color, light and time in this exhibition. This exhibit featured abstract photography with Ag, Thank You, Fog, and Mistral (Avignon); straightforward photography with One Donut Twelve Times, Twelve Donuts One Time; ready-made withTower of Babel (a Kodak photo paper box); another take on the plain black canvas; and giant installation in the form of a ventilation duct with Periscope. This made the show feel a little busy or cluttered to me. I thought Finch’s concepts and ideas were very creative and interesting, but the execution was questionable.

Finch succeeded in documenting the abstract and ephemeral aspects of our surroundings, and he did so quite objectively. The works came off as impressively impersonal. It was as if he saw a challenge and went after it. My questions about his execution aside, his concepts and ideas were quite remarkable.

- Nelson

(assignment for my ‘critical methods for contemporary art’ class- 05/07/2009)

from a 2 week photo class junior year of high school – Spring 2006

from sophomore year of high school – Spring 2005

fashion fotos for stitch, Northwestern Library and roof of the Block Museum - 05/03/2009