NY State Fair

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on June 26, 2012 at 9:09am

Curator’s Comment:

 

I keep coming across this piece when I scroll through the random feature on the site- there are so many incredible works I have overlooked that were uploaded some time ago.  This photograph is quite beautiful, but the achromatic value system removes all traces of idyllic or wistful reminiscence.  The extended black arms enliven and anthropomorphize the ride, making appear as an animated colossal.   The top section appears encrusted with detail and ornament, but again reduced of color it becomes heavier and almost ominous. Like frosted icing on a cap that’s about to topple. I also like the unexpected emptiness of the right side of the image, increasing the sway of the form’s cylindrical core.  The linear extensions of the chairs perfectly fill the bottom right, and move my eye diagonally up to the opposite corner. World Trade Center 2employs a similar contrast of arching lines and grey shadow. It‘s elegance also lies in the sweeping gesture of the architecture as well as the nuanced shadows on the skyscraper itself. Psychologically this piece gives me a similar feeling- any nostalgia imbued in the subject matter is burned away by the events of the past and so that all that remains is a testament to a frozen, more innocent time.