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The Buffalo News
LITTLE THINGS
WHAT:"micro-illuminations"
New Work by Gerald Mead WHEN: Through Nov. 3 |
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WHERE: Fanette Goldman/Carolyn Greenfield Gallery, Daemen
College, 4380 Main St. ADMISSION: Free INFO: 839-8241
Each of the works in "micro-illuminations," Mead's new series of
collage/assemblages at Daemen College, is smaller than the proverbial bread
box. And many of the tiny found objects and images used in their construction
are from an era when people actually used bread boxes. Peering through the glass front of Daemen College's jewel-box of a
gallery, one spots vintage lamps, camera parts, books, projectors and
rabbit-ear antennas, all lending an air of nostalgic familiarity. A closer
look reveals meticulously crafted miniature works complexly layered and
encoded with cultural references, complicated by multiple visual and verbal
puns. Added to these familiar Mead tactics is a new ingredient: actual light.
Each work contains its own light source - the only illumination in the
otherwise darkened gallery - creating an overall effect somewhat akin to a
candle-lighted chapel. This chapel-like atmosphere may be exactly what Mead
is striving for; many of these intimate works possess an iconic quality, like
radiant little shrines. In "Celebrity ziggurat," for instance, Mead centers a miniature
stepped pyramid beneath the glow of a small table lamp, which itself
circumscribes the margins of a larger pyramid shape. The stepped pyramid is
comprised of five stacked images of tightly cropped faces - faces that,
though unrecognizable, presumedly are those of celebrities. The whole piece
provides a cunning commentary on the cult of celebrity worship. The ziggurat form appears again in "Yucatan micro-projection."
Here, an elegant vintage slide projector throws an image of the Mexican
temple, Chichen Itza, onto a tiny paper "screen." A barely visible
stone particle is affixed to the paper's center. This reliclike fragment and
optical miniaturization of the massive temple gently lampoons our cultural
fondness for collecting historical mementos. The fascination with fragments continues in "Argus cascade," one
of several works involving images of Niagara Falls. A slide of the falls -
the kind commonly found in souvenir shops - is visible through a small
viewer. From an opening on the side, pieces of shiny black stone cascade out,
while a prismatic strip mounted on top mimics a rainbow. A sense of genuine reverence comes through in these works, perhaps derived
from what seems an almost ritualistic execution. One can imagine Mead
assembling these complicated objects as if he were engaged in a sacred act. |
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