Chelsea becomes such a blur anymore. I was up recently, scouring the art districts for fresh perspectives, talent without fanfare, vision, quiet strength. Didn't find much of that but I did find those familiar faces that we've come to rely on. Big names! Headlining Uber Artists!! The brave new world cannot be stopped and it's ambassadors have chronicled the spectacle. So what popped out at me the most were photographers!
I wandered into the Andreas Gursky show, the reigning champion of high brow photography and was struck by the work less as a result of content or composition and more as a result of size. The size alone of the pieces were so indulgent that I marveled at it in the way I marvel at indulgence in Damien Hurst's work. A visceral nauseous blast countervails the scale of these artist's works. And then, that's it. Shock and awe on the scale of Korea's Mass Games with all the implications that come with looking at a photograph of 300,000 people doing synchronized dancing.
There were three series in the show: a series of Japanese volcanic islands in the back gallery, several large photographs of the Mass Games, at least two formula 2 racing photographs that look like crystal clear "frozen in time" film stills, a quality I found mesmerizing and unappealing, and a smattering of photographs like the Bahrain racetrack shown above. Gursky's interests, at least visually, have to do with events that are far beyond the human scale, events and environments that abstract the human scale in a way that makes the whole human production seem alien, isolating and terrifying.
Gursky's pieces all exceeded 6' at the large dimension. When I think about them, they make me feel disgusted and disgusting, though they are profound and beautiful, in a soul-less way. It's the commodity nature of them. The concept is simple enough. Spectacle, polished and tweaked and ready for the dance.
A much quieter photography show was in the back of some well groomed, little gallery on the Chelsea street front. It was Edward Burtynsky's work on display for observation and contemplation in a discreet back room. All of the prints were framed and none were larger than four feet. There was a table in the middle of the room with several of his books so the curious connoisseur could peruse the menu to see what wasn't represented on the walls.
Burtynsky deals with the landscape and might be put out when he has to include the human beings who engage with these inhospitable environments. The works are documentarian, stark, featuring industrial scale environments with a whisperer's lament. His work sings a mourning song for the world as it changes. The world isn't dying. It's just perpetually changing and the change is painful and violent and the scars are beautiful.
Included in this exhibition were some photos of the Bangladeshi ship breaking yards, a few images from Vermont rock quarries and some more understated landscape pieces. Works of Burtynsky leave an impression, an unforgettable image. He shoots with a loose lens but knows his edges. His works, like Gursky's, are as easily enjoyed from the point of view of abstraction and formal issues as they are as narratives or reportage. But with Burtynsky's lens, the ravaged landscape and the viewer go somewhere intimate.
