Objects of Objectification…

I am inspired, somewhat, by Cammi's post from last week.

Over the course of 7 days I worked on two pieces for Open Studio.  Originally, I had no plan for the presentation of these photos since I didn't honestly think they would get in.  I had, however, been struggling with the "how" aspect of presenting the images should there ever be a situation in which I'd need to do so.  Matting and framing just didn't really fit the images (it is perfect for some types of images but I think presentation should match the work).

I felt pretty strongly that the presentation should be as much a part of the work as the work itself.  I've done this a number of times before, with the prints I've done directly onto plexiglass or the ones I've done on metal.  Ultimately, though, I did those prints because (to me) it just looked cool.  Being on a transparent surface or a metal one didn't really have anything to do the work and I felt as if the pieces for Open Studio (and, by extension, all twelve from the series from which I pulled those two) should be more intentional in terms of presentation.

When I exhibited the pieces on glass, I got a lot of "Cool photo; how'd you do that?" comments/questions but they're very separate and they didn't resolve one another.  I thought that the abstract pieces might be more complete in a mixed media presentation but printing on plexi is out of my budget until further notice.  Then, I came across Pam Moxley's work at Mason Murer when going to see Deanne's work.

Pam Moxley does a lot of mixed media presentations of painting, distressing, texturing, exposing an image and then coating it.  The piece I saw was one of the only one's I remembered from the gallery itself.  I really wanted to try it and luckily Travis knows all about this process and was willing to coach me through it.  I'm extremely happy with the results.  Extremely.  Professor Turk (who watched and guided me through the creation of the work in her own, enthusiastic way) was really excited about them and how they turned out.  She even, at one point, as we were talking about it referred to it (the panels and the resin) as "almost turning them into a sculture."

I've never been into sculpture but have been fascinated by it.  Sculptures have a physical presence that you don't get from a photo.  I'm glad that I found something that lends that quality to the images so that they feel like a piece instead of just a picture.  I was concerned for some time that I wouldn't be able to sort that out.  I've also given thought to what I'd call the series.  Objects of Objectification came to mind but I don't know if I'm married to that yet.  It's a though.

For those interested, more of Pam Moxley's work can be seen on her website:

Pam Moxley