The Foundry: Other People's Clothes

This week Gallery Guide took a trip to the foundry to check out the work of Caleb Cole. His show was titled 'Other People's Clothes' and as one walks around this once functioning bank it is easy to see why. His work is photography taken of himself, but they are not what you would expect from a self-portrait because they really don't say much about his personality, but more so about someone else's that he may not even have a relationship with. This man puts on different peoples personalities along with their clothes and lifestyles. It was really interesting to me to find out that he didn't necessarily have a connection with the people who's clothing he wore. He just created a personality and setting based on each outfit and the type of person that he though might wear each piece. While it is comical at first to see him in a far too big suit, or an old woman's knickers, there seems to be an underlying darkness in his work. Whether this was Cole's intention or simply where our minds take us is up for debate, but one thing is for sure, viewing these photograph's made me want to know more about the moment that they were taken in, rather than just the split second period of time in which they were taken. 

For me personally, one of the most interesting features of this old building, that was once a bank, is the vault door that is directly in the back of the gallery space. It is something that is so unusual in a gallery but only makes sense considering the buildings former function. To me, it was a piece of art on its own, and I'm glad that it remanded because I think it adds great character to the space. 

I thought this image was very interesting as well. The woman in the picture does not appear to be overly sad yet she is in a graveyard. She is also holding a paper bag, which I was curious about. I really like the composition of this picture because of her placement between the graves. I also thought it was intriguing that she is wearing such a bright and fun dress in a graveyard yet she seems very uninterested. 

After reading Caleb Cole's artist statement the idea behind each picture began to make a lot more sense. He discusses how each photograph was taken in a moment that was supposed to represent some kind of change happening in the next moment that the viewer does not get to see. It becomes especially clear in the photograph above as the person celebrates their 40th birthday and the fact that after they blow out their candle things will forever be a little different. 

I thought that this piece was particularly powerful because of the way he captured the body language if an older woman. I think that body language is key in this line of work and the hunched position, worried look, and holding on to the glasses gives us a feel for her personality. It is not as easy to tell what is about to happen but because of her body language we know that it is something that she is unsure about. 

Second Nature- Albany International Airport Gallery

The second trip that we went on in Gallery Guide was to the Albany International Airport. This show displayed the work of Robert Bell, Katie DeGroot, Adam Frelin, Jenny Kemp, Jason Middlebrook, Laura Moriarty, Jill Parisi, and Karin Stack.
While each artist had a very unique style and method to their creation, they all seemed to go together because of their organic nature. A lot of the artists seemed to take a colorful approach to the theme of this show which I thought was interesting and intriguing because the central theme is nature. While some artists focused on objects in nature that could be identified as such, others were more abstract and only gave us the feeling of a natural world.
One of the most interesting things about this show to me personally was how the work of all of these artists contrasted so much with what was going on in the airport below. Because of where the gallery is the viewer is able to look down upon people waiting to board planes, going through security, and greeting others. From up above one is able to view the whole scene from a variety of angles and then walk to the window and watch planes take off and land on the runway. The height and views from up above relate to this sense of nature in the gallery because of the godlike view it gives to the person above. Just as the artist viewed and studied nature before attempting to recreate it, the viewer of their final piece is able to view others in an observatory way. It also gives us the option of whether we want to view the whole scene or if we want to focus in on a particular person. The artists also had to consider if they wanted to focus in on a particular detail in nature or the bigger picture.

 

This first image is the view of the runway from the gallery on the top floor of the airport. There are large windows that let in a lot of sunlight and give an encompassing view of the outside. 

This image on the left is an example of a more realistic view of the forest and trees, but like many of the others it plays around with artificial and natural colors, like the latter, contrasting and overlapping one another.

The image on the right is one of my favorites. It has an unfinished quality about it because in spots it uses pencil and in others it is more rich and detailed. To me there is something about the subject manner that makes this pencil work nicely.

This image above is interesting in that it is a slice of a tree trunk. It uses bright oranges in a geometric pattern that contrast with that natural, dull oranges and browns of the tree trunk itself.

These two images above are also ones that were among my favorites. Although they are both very abstract and without the concept of Second Nature it might be harder to identify them, but I think considering the topic, and the colors make it easy to see that it is the artists interpretation of flowers. 

The artist that made this piece had a very interesting print making process, in some of the leaf-like shapes it is easy to see how the artist mastered a detail and repeated it onto the other leaves in a unique and successful way.

This last piece brings fantasy together with nature in an unusual way. It is not extremely far fetched that a scene like this could be created but it is interesting to see the mix of nature with such artificial lighting.