Klompching Gallery presents Anthem, premiering new photographic artwork by Doug Fogelson, in the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
Anthem is the most recent installment of Fogelson’s extensive Chemical Alterations series, in which the artist perceptively combines the subject of nature, with the (de)construction of the photograph, to comment upon the human impact on the environment.
Fogelson’s methodology begins with photographing biologically diverse landscapes using analog film. Back in the studio, the artist subjects the processed film to a range of common industrial chemicals—draining away and altering colors in the film’s emulsion, and at times melting away the layers of dye coupler all the way to the film’s plastic base. Through this destruction salt crystals, bubbles, dust, markings and patterns come to the foreground, while the original representational portions of the photograph all but disappear.
The eight photographs in the exhibition—lush in color—are at once beautifully rendered abstractions, and also for the artist are a reflection of “the altering effects that human activity has on our planet.” The work offers up the opportunity for viewers to consider ephemeral processes such as change and loss, as well as resilience and cyclical patterns.
The Anthem series is presented at an opportune time, when debates and discussion regarding the health of the environment is an increasingly urgent topic—in terms of economy, culture, politics and survival.
Doug Fogelson : Anthem
September 5- October 11
Klompching Gallery
89 Water Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
