photography

Gregory Crewdson /  by Justin Harrison

What I am interested in is that moment of transcendence, where one is transported into another place, into a perfect, still world.
Gregory Crewdson - https://gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/

I find it a little strange to be engaged in sculpture and abstract work, and yet of all the artists right now that I feel any affinity to would be Gregory Crudeson. I’m working through a list of a whole bunch of different artist in my research. However usually I only connect to one or two works of per artist and not so much the body of their work.

However with Crewdson I don’t get weary of his work. I find that there is a movie in one photograph, I find enough room in his work to wonder around. And then I discovered the above quote which feels akin to my preoccupations of the Passage and Place of transformation.

I feels like I am witnessing a slow decay in his images, the gradual reduction of a granular world to an exit of some form, either physical or existential. His work carries a romantic sadness that reminds me of ‘Flemish Game’ paintings but goes deeper.

I’m not sure exactly how he connects to the Derrida theory I’ve been reading but intuitively I feel like it’s there.

Also I’ve noticed of late how much I use photography in my blog that it is a natural part of my visual language. I think I should permit it some more space alongside the drawing and making. There is a piece I’d like to shoot that’s been lodged in my brooding, but I worry it’s just a cheap copy. However I’ll at least draw it out to explore it, maybe print it an I can decide on it’s virtue after that.

 

Breaking Down /  by Justin Harrison

I saw a blown out tire on the way to work. Cast to the curb. There was something poetic in its appearance. The confidence of it’s thick black tones counterpointed by the twisted ribbons and threads of it’s insides. Somehow it felt like it had now become a victim of a hit and run. But by whom? Then the leaves add another texture to the scene for me. They too have fallen, curling and twisting in their passage. All transitioning away from their known purpose. Exit.

I’m not sure what I want to do with it, just leave it as photographs or progress it into drawings, there is something about the forms and shapes it takes that is a little provocative to capture - maybe printmaking. Maybe a digital composition of all four images.