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Review by Stefano Catalani -- Independent Art Curator & Critic catalani@earthlink.net Tel 206 550 1761 Fax 206 784 9809 January
14th - February 23rd Carol Golembowsky @ Benham Studio Gallery The work of New York based artist Carol Golembowsky in exhibition at Benham Studio Gallery on 1st Ave. in Seattle is emotionally intense and strongly gripping to my interest around the concept of memory and time. The black and white photographs have the power to hypnotize. In particular the pictures have the ability to suggest the sense of time passing, and, in this quality, to convey the idea of memory as a relic of feelings already gone and past. What seems emerge from the sequence of pictures is the artistÕs acknowledgement of the futility of any human efforts in achieving eternity. As an archeologist the artist displays the result of her search and uses all the repertoire of an archeological collection: hat boxes, bird cages, old shoes, a nest, wooden drawers; all of these are containers, display windows in her private museum, which contained something that is gone, vanished. A rabbit leg, dead flies and deer horns fallen from the skull to which they belonged, appear in the photographs as iconae of the life and time transience. None of these remnants belongs to any of the specific containers. GolembowskyÕs care in creating the photographic sets aims to the perfection of simplicity and naturalness. The still-life sets are meticulously designed to produce a real sense of dusty abandon, and realized with such a perfection to deceive the eyes first and the mind then. Texts, letters and scattered numbers are both reproduced in the pictures and printed over the paper of the photos. They seem to contribute to create a Òwhite noiseÓ, a disturbance, more than try to give a key of interpretation. Everything, in the context, appears chaotic and fragmented just as the objects found in an archeological excavation. A pictorial effect, which definitively makes the works artistically complete and interesting, strengthens the sensation of time passing: rapid brushstrokes of what resemble to be a sepia-colored fixative cloud with haziness over the objects portrayed. Haziness is a quality of memory. Such hazy atmosphere becomes palpable and thick especially around the borders as if the image could be only partially caught. We witness the results of the discovery and these are confused and missing of a clear interpretation. Viewers are invited to consider a meaning to remain undisclosed. The artist suggests a reflection on the futility of any temporary interpretation, and drive in the direction to face the ÒabsoluteÓ passing of time. A Time for which marble columns turning to sand and flies dead with the first cold after their summer season of reproduction are only short thermal effects with the same duration. The presence in the pictures of laces and delicate silk underwear showed in old wooden drawers half-closed talks about the value of private intimacy and personal dimension as probably the only counterbalance able to relieve the pain for the awareness of temporality and time disengaging and deranging everything. Stefano
Catalani -- Independent Art Curator & Critic Text
Ó 2002 Stefano Catalani.
Erin Spencer @ Benham Studio Gallery Erin SpencerÕs works in exhibit at the Benham Studio Gallery in Seattle are mysterious. The black and white photographs Ð at a first glance charming and attractive - reveal soon their dark side glamour, suggesting the sophisticated atmosphere of a noir film of the 50Õs. This sensation permeates all the shots of the sequence. Something sinister seems to wait for us, as we pass from a picture to another. Each time such subtle disturbing sensation surprises us as a dŽjˆ vu. In particular, in the artistÕs self-portraits a kind of weirdness and hypothetical mind convulsion seems to emerge through the distorted perspectives, which allude to certain German Expressionist atmospheres soaked with psychological pressure and interior confusion. Here, instead it is not about confusion, it is more about a sort of higher awareness: the artist seems to be aware of things we ignore. The gravity center coagulating this impression resides in the eyes of the sitter, for instance her eyes: they perforate any defense and made us curious and scared at the same time. What does she know that we ignore? Why is she smiling so mysteriously? In these pictures, the rarefied air Ð bright and electrical Ð helps in conveying such a uncomfortable strangeness. Looking at the artistÕs frozen stare in the pictures, we unconsciously undergo. The viewer is almost grateful the artist did not print bigger formats otherwise the already strong sensation of gravity attraction towards the images would be definitively invincible and overwhelming. Some other photographs stress the attention on details. In many close-ups, the artist takes pictures of parts of her body posing with sumptuous a-la-page dress with distorted perspectives in the background. Erin Spencer seems to play with an old-fashion repertoire of images from the 40Õs and 50Õs, stressing the germinal relationship amongst fashion, celebrity and photography. At the same time, in the eccentricity of the perspectives and poses one can catch the artistÕs attempt to bring the attention on a more expressionistic use of the photography in contrast with the nowadays reduction to mere appearance of the fashion world. Taking self-portraits is always an admirable and challenging mental suit: who decides for this road it has to be strong enough to stand the exposure. And even in this attitude, Erin Spencer reveals her qualities. Stefano Catalani -- Independent Art Curator & Critic
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