Sheppard Contemporary
REfigured
Ken Gonzales-Day
Gonzales-Day had three
large-scale photographs and 15 small and framed photographs/envelopes on
display in the REfigured art show. His final image (and largest) is a moody
photograph of an ominous tree. It’s branches twist and curve around each other,
both crawling along the ground and reaching up towards the overcast sky.
There’s no leaves on the tree, just grey green mold drooping off the branches
and tracing up the trunk. And the only color besides hues of grey an brown in
the image is the green grass surrounding the tree and the before mentioned
moss. This was by far my favorite image in the entire art show. The photo is
beautiful. Stunning. I was drawn to it before anything else, and then back to
it again after I’d gone through the entire gallery. What disturbs me however,
is how I saw it only as a beautiful (though eerie) image at first. It wasn’t
until I read Gonzales-Day’s artist statement that the image took on a truly
dark tone. It, along with his other two large scale photographs, were
photographs of lynching trees still growing in California. And the 15 framed
pictures and envelopes were his inspiration. They contained images of lynched
individuals, some presumably on the very trees he’d photographed.
Shen Wei
Wei’s work in the REfigured
art show consisted of seven self-portraits. In all of which Wei is nude. In one
he drinks tea, in another he lies seductively in the grass, in yet another he’s
smelling a tree branch. Then he’s posed among rocks as if he’s about to jump
into water below, he’s sitting in a dark room with his hand above an oil lamp,
he’s pulling lingerie out of a dresser drawer, he’s sitting on a bed with the
daylight streaming in through a singular window… I had difficulty piecing
together the story Wei was trying to tell me, the message he wanted to convey.
And it wasn’t until I read his artist statement that I understood in any
capacity. He was depicting the “experience of passage from youth to adulthood,”
exploring “what wasn’t, what could have been and might still be.”
Tom Jones
Jones’ work in the REfigured
art show was the smallest in number - only 4 photographs (though two display
cases contained his inspiration / reference material of old photographs taken
of Native Americans). What I find interesting about this series is how easily
Jones’ message translated. I took my fourteen year old brother with me to the
art show and when I asked him what his favorite piece was he pointed to one of Jones’
photographs. “Why is it your favorite?”
I inquired. He creased his brow for a moment before telling me, “I like it
because I see something like it in every history book I read in school, but
something’s different. Something’s wrong with it.” He hadn’t read the artist
statement, yet still he understood. Jones’ was making a commentary on how early
photographs of Native Americans shaped Americans opinions of them. Somewhat
skewed opinions perhaps. And so, he decided to have a “Ho-Chunk” photographing
non-Indians dressed up as Indians.
Zoe Crosher
Crosher’s series in the
REfigured art show contained 46 images. They were all portraits of Michelle
duBois, photographs she’d re-photographed, scanned, and resized in varying
capacities. The effect is some crisp and sharp images, many images with
dustings of white grain, and some images no longer recognizable. In her artist
statement Crosher explains that she’s blurring the line between fantasy and reality.
In my opinion, the message was effectively conveyed.
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