Number One of...

Comment

Comment by Joseph Deiss on April 24, 2013 at 9:34pm

Before I had any formal training in photography (my interests in photography started around age 10 and I had my first contact printer when I was 11 or 12), I discovered  Eadweard Muybrige, and then shortly shortly afterwards came across an exhibit of Duane Michal's work (somewhere around the age of 24). I have pursued a narrative aspect in my images ever since. I also have an intense interest in hesitation - the moment - before action. Plumb-bobs have always seemed to me to embody this hesitation, and illustrate an aspect of Newton's interest in science; I meant the plumb-bobs and the table to be the only unchanging elements in the series. I was struck by the contrast between the surfaces of the plumb-bobs and of the steel table. The dark bottles, placed in the series as a numerical sequence (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32)  was another nod to Newton (mathematics). Cook's Radiometer (first seen in Still-Life Number Three), the chemical bottles (appearing in #10), and the plants (in #13) were all meant to be allusions to alchemy and the occult. The addition of the second hexagonal bolt with the bottle behind, tipped over (#11), and the tapered boiler screw (#12) were meant to be small humorous interludes. Image Number Thirteen was meant to be a metaphysical meditation on the creation of life (another of Newton's interests). As I was taking down the last still-life set up, I couldn't help myself, and I had to photograph the "aftermath". And since I had planned only thirteen images, it became the "Epilogue (the "how life messed up the universe), so then I made the "Prologue"; an empty slate, as it were…

The above is a rambling how and why of the series; other than it was part of an ongoing effort to get control of the wet-plate process. However, I always work for, and hope that, there is an "intuitive", emotive, force in my work...

Comment by Resident Curator on April 24, 2013 at 3:08pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

(disclaimer: Joseph Deiss and I have never met, but we traded artwork after corresponding on this site.)

 

I can’t comfortably say I initially comprehended the depth of the narrative taking place in this series of photographs.  They seem a stark departure from your lush figurative images, but still maintain a decidedly human presence.  The floating bottles and their stoppers (or plumb bobs?) seem to speak to a felt absence as much as a tangible presence.  Suspended in mid-air, the objects hover indefinitely above the table in this intriguing tableau.  The stoppers also strike me as purposeful and refined in contrast to the makeshift table and tussled fabric backdrop.  The earlier images, with the sparse still life objects have a visual emptiness that is accentuated by the stained rings on the cloth below, belying the previous inclusion of other animated forms. I like the corners, adding a faintly nostalgic or romantic component to the presentation of the work. After I read your statement about the inspiration of this new series, I saw meaningful and poetic homage to elemental forces, including human thought and wonder.  The rudimentary metal table serves this liturgical alchemy, but appears more handmade than clinical or scientific. It is a more uniquely individual table rather than a generic vehicle for experiment. It reminds me of Muybridge’s research on movement, and the studied expressions of his ever moving subjects.  But it may be the case that these pieces are best understood intuitively rather than consciously or intellectually.  And in my mind, that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.