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The Buffalo News
DARKROOM DANCE
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WHEN: Through Dec. 20 WHERE: Nina Freudenheim Gallery, 140 North St. ADMISSION: Free INFO: 882-5777
Carey's unique process begins where most photography ends -- in the
darkroom. In total darkness, the artist presses any number of pushpins into a
sheet of 24- by 20-inch photographic paper then paints the surface with red,
blue and green light, the additive primary colors that are used in, among
other things, television. Following this procedure, Carey subjects the paper to multiple exposures,
sending pushpin shadows and reflections skating along the surface in
interlacing paths. By varying the angle and amount of each subsequent
exposure, all manner of overlapping colors and tonalities occur. Explosions
of brilliant magenta and yellow merge with equally dazzling patches of red,
green, cyan and blue. Significantly and in contrast to conventional painting, the artist works
blind here; the resulting abstract images are only finally revealed in the
developing bath when the process is complete. For Carey, this process drives
the art. Cutting out the camera as middleman and going right to the
photographic print establishes the parameters of expression. This shorthand approach to picture-making is nothing if not ingenious, but
even so, the methods that are used are deeply rooted in historical traditions
of photography and painting. In the 1920s, the Dadaist Man Ray, influenced by
the pioneering spirit of photographer Alfred Stieglitz, created a
groundbreaking art form he dubbed rayographs. Rayographs were variations of
an even earlier type of image known as pictograms, in which objects are
placed directly on photosensitive paper and exposed to light to produce a
shadowy contract print. Man Ray's innovation was to impart motion to an essentially static process
by manipulating both the light source and objects during exposure. This
allowed him to create highly dynamic variations of shape and value. Carey's
photograms advance this process once again by adopting a minimalist's
attitude and applying an inclusive understanding of color theory. Chance also plays an essential role in the work, a practice that harks
back to the surrealists of the 1930s and the abstract expressionists of the
'40s and '50s. In the blackness of the darkroom Carey performs without a net,
substituting instinctual movement for conventional control. This blend of skilled manipulation and fortuitous accident combines to
produce spectacular and often surprising compositions. Some of the pieces
incorporate vertical streaks of pulsating color, while others form radiant
crosses that twinkle with pushpin sparks. For me, part of the fun was attempting to visualize the precise darkroom
dance required to produce a effect -- and wondering how many attempts ended
up in the trash before one of the dazzling designs seen here emerged. |
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