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| | Courtesy of The Proposition Gallery |
Groovin' after Pollock
"The Depthography Group" brings art and performance to life in deeply grooved photo works.
By DAVID HATCHETT
Offoffoff.com
'Depthography' is the brainchild of Robert Munn and Sara Cook. 'Otto' is a friend sitting on the steps of an apartment building. His perfectly detailed image appears to hover simultaneously in front and behind the flat surface of this photograph. In "Otto," a lenticular photograph, the artists combine aspects of film and still photography to create this illusion. Animated by the movement of the viewer, Otto appears to take his hat off in a greeting gesture.
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| THE DEPTHOGRAPHY GROUP | Exhibition: The Depthography Group.
Works by: Sara Cook, Robert Munn, Jackie Chang, Dr. Revolt.
| | SCHEDULE | November 6 - December 11, 2004
Gallery: The Proposition
559 West 22nd Street
New York NY
Summer hours: Tues-Sat 10am-6pm
Regular hours: Tues-Sat 10am-6pm
Phone: (212) 242-0035
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Natural vision is much flatter, relying on the two point perspective of the eyes to define space. The 3-Dimensions in the Depthography photos are created with sandwiched planes, each refracting pieces of information. Seen together through finely grooved (lenticular) surfaces, a carefully delineated three-dimensions emerge.
In "Coney Cad" a Cadillac appears to hover in the air in front of the Wonder Wheel. Roller coaster cars filled with riders drop down a steep track in "Cyclone." Munn is the photographer. He moves the camera around the image in a rapid series of shots that record the scene from slightly varied angles. Cook manipulates the shots in Photoshop, assembling the lenticular effects. In one work, using a split-scan technique, Sara Cook does an erotic belly dance in front of a light box in a darkened room. The stark, pink-and-black Warholesque image is animated by the viewer's movement.
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| | Courtesy of The Proposition Gallery |
The two sometimes work in collaboration with other artists. Included in "The Depthography Group" are Jackie Chang and Dr. Revolt. Both see their art primarily in a street context, but Chang shows three pieces, each with the word EMPIRE printed across the bottom. In a satirical comment, flip imaging turns the Roman Coliseum into an overhead view of a sprawling suburb. The graffiti artist Dr. Revolt tags subway trains, but in the lenticular photo "Train," his graffiti tag floats away from the side of the train and hovers in front of the surface.
These works speak directly to post-Pollock painting. Jackson Pollock dropped continuous fields of paint across the entire canvas, creating a wall of paint that is emphatically flat, pushing the surface forward while simultaneously defining a shallow optical space between interlocking planes of paint and the canvas. In the lenticular photo, flat planes stack in a front to back interlocking perspective that exaggerates a deep space between the surface and back of the image. The refracting flat planes and the movement of the viewer together create an interactive art form like no other.
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DECEMBER 3, 2004
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