Dan Powell / Toward Middle Grey / Visual Symbiosis Exhibition / CMU Art Center (2016) Buffalo Bridge Gallery (2016) / Visual Symbiosis (2020) /courtesy of the artist
(Statement / Dan Powell) Context for Language and Longing: “Toward Middle Grey”
These works derive from my insatiable desire to indulge in the past; numerous and lengthy travels to the Mediterranean region with my wife in the 90’s that have not been possible for the past 10 years due to disability (negatives for these 2 pieces were made on the Adriatic Sea in late 90’s). I photographed avidly on these travels, my negatives now act as portals to the experiences that were most beloved and powerful to me. They are souvenirs of that moment of taking, wherein I conjure the experience through the image (as per Susan Stewart in On Longing, and Susan Sontag On Photography). The images slip further and further into the distance, as does the experience, a nostalgia that is embodied in “Toward Middle Grey”. Images of land, sky, water, transition into one another: both sides present similar images that converge into the middle (grey). The middle image, being a field of neutral grey, has no identity in place or denotative reference, and therefore lies outside of photographic representation. It slips behind or beneath the images that lie on either side; being a space (a lack by some definition) rather than a place. In this sense it forms a rupture within the flow of pictorial elements, yet it is composed of the same substance (grey) that forms a continuity with the pictorial elements. Symbolically, or philosophically, oblivion is, of course, the result of this convergence (again as in Sontag and Barthes). (entropic, gr {entropia} a turning toward)
These works derive from my insatiable desire to indulge in the past; numerous and lengthy travels to the Mediterranean region with my wife in the 90’s that have not been possible for the past 10 years due to disability (negatives for these 2 pieces were made on the Adriatic Sea in late 90’s). I photographed avidly on these travels, my negatives now act as portals to the experiences that were most beloved and powerful to me. They are souvenirs of that moment of taking, wherein I conjure the experience through the image (as per Susan Stewart in On Longing, and Susan Sontag On Photography). The images slip further and further into the distance, as does the experience, a nostalgia that is embodied in “Toward Middle Grey”. Images of land, sky, water, transition into one another: both sides present similar images that converge into the middle (grey). The middle image, being a field of neutral grey, has no identity in place or denotative reference, and therefore lies outside of photographic representation. It slips behind or beneath the images that lie on either side; being a space (a lack by some definition) rather than a place. In this sense it forms a rupture within the flow of pictorial elements, yet it is composed of the same substance (grey) that forms a continuity with the pictorial elements. Symbolically, or philosophically, oblivion is, of course, the result of this convergence (again as in Sontag and Barthes). (entropic, gr {entropia} a turning toward)
Dan Powell / Blue Skies / Visual Symbiosis Exhibition / CMU Art Center (2016) Buffalo Bridge Gallery (2016) / Visual Symbiosis (2020) /courtesy of the artist
(statement / Dan Powell) “Blue Skies”
This piece deals with the indexical in a different way, in speaking to the aporia that exists within the photograph’s ability to provide a literal footprint. Photography, the most indexical of media in its relation to the actual event or referent, is here seen to fail. I’m interested not in the faithful reproduction qualities of the photograph, but the slippage that occurs, how it fails to meet it’s obligation toward truth in it’s tracking of the referent. Where the term “Blue Skies” conjures notions of happiness and optimism, quite the opposite are depicted in the grey skies that are seen as the result of B&W film used. In a semiotic turn of events, an absolute duality of meaning flickers between subject and object. While the attempt to depict optimism was earnest, and sought in sincerity, alas, the wrong film was used, bringing forth an incorrect (opposite) result.
This piece deals with the indexical in a different way, in speaking to the aporia that exists within the photograph’s ability to provide a literal footprint. Photography, the most indexical of media in its relation to the actual event or referent, is here seen to fail. I’m interested not in the faithful reproduction qualities of the photograph, but the slippage that occurs, how it fails to meet it’s obligation toward truth in it’s tracking of the referent. Where the term “Blue Skies” conjures notions of happiness and optimism, quite the opposite are depicted in the grey skies that are seen as the result of B&W film used. In a semiotic turn of events, an absolute duality of meaning flickers between subject and object. While the attempt to depict optimism was earnest, and sought in sincerity, alas, the wrong film was used, bringing forth an incorrect (opposite) result.
Dan Powell / installation view / Visual Symbiosis Exhibition at CMU Art Center (2016) / Visual Symbiosis (2020)
(Artist statement / Dan Powell) Practice: I am interested in the intersection of the following: locations of failure within the photograph’s indexical contract, interactions between words and images in the production (and rupture) of meaning, the photograph as portal in the never ending pursuit of Longing. In this black and white film based imagery, grey is used as the conduit or connective tissue that binds the pieces together and creates the pulse of the work. Through its symbolic character, perhaps even in its escape outside the image itself, grey creates the tension between image material and its pictorial product. Important to the work is the use of titling that influences the perceived reading of the imagery and acts as a trigger for elongated or alternate meanings.
Exhibitions : A personal History of Visual Symbiosis, CMU Art Center (Chiang Mai University Art Center) February 1-15, 2016 / Buffalo Bridge Gallery, Bangkok / February 27 - March 31, 2016 / Visual Symbiosis (2020)
Exhibitions : A personal History of Visual Symbiosis, CMU Art Center (Chiang Mai University Art Center) February 1-15, 2016 / Buffalo Bridge Gallery, Bangkok / February 27 - March 31, 2016 / Visual Symbiosis (2020)
About artist: Dan Powell received his MFA degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1980. Powell taught in the Art Department at the University of Northern Iowa from 1980-1987 before beginning his current position teaching photography at the University of Oregon in 1988. Selected sites of Powell’s work in group exhibitions include the Royal College of Art, London; the Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL; Center for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Light Gallery, New York, NY; A. Robert Samuel Gallery, New York, NY; San Francisco Camerawork, S.F., CA; The Friends of Photography, Carmel, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY; La Maison Europeane de la Photographie, Paris, France; Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR; C.E.P.A. Gallery, Syracuse, NY; The Silver Image Gallery, Seattle, WA; and Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY. Selected one-person exhibitions include Thom Barry Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN; PPS Gallery, Hamburg, Germany; The Silver Image Gallery, Seattle, WA; Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR; Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA; G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA; Ledel Gallery, New York, NY; Project Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA; and Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY. Powell has received numerous grants and fellowships including University of Oregon research awards, Polaroid Corporation purchase awards, a Maine Photographic Workshops grant, and in 1981 he received an Emerging Artists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work appears in collections at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Lightwork, Syracuse, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and Art Institute of Chicago. Powell’s work has been reviewed in prestigious publications including Art Week, New Art Examiner, Art News, Afterimage, and the New York Times. A comprehensive archive of Powell’s work is being collected by Special Collections, Knight Library at The University of Oregon.