Scott McFarland’s recent work examines the concept of duration, and its representation in different media including photography and video. Eschewing Henri Cartier-Bresson’s notion of the decisive moment (“the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression”) McFarland has created imagery of a subject over time, expanding the duration of his examination as well as the visual information collected. McFarland meticulously assembles his imagery in the digital realm of form of the single representation, the result a resonant image that challenges the assumed notion of a photograph representing one single moment.
The artist’s recent multimedia work Shattered Glass, Late Afternoon Sun (2015) for example, is a trans-mounted chromogenic print in a light box displayed alongside a 4K video piece – both captured simultaneously using a digital camera. Through a dizzying mosaic of shattered glass can be seen a tranquil pastoral landscape of snow and trees. The fragments of glass at once reference the artist’s cultivated process of piecing together his works, the camera lens, and the root language of digital photography, pixels.
Skyleaks is a series that depicts skies captured through traditional analogue means on colour negative film with a 4×5 camera. The luminous subject is rendered lifelike in LED light box displays. The artist makes use of expired and defective film that has been kept for many years until a purpose was found for its use. In the past exposures that exhibited these flaws and defects were often discarded by the artist, however in Skyleaks these unique and unpredictable results are purposefully chosen over more prefect captures made at the same time.
Scott McFarland, Shattered Glass and Skyleaks, presented by CHOI&LAGER and DIVISION Gallery
PHOTOFAIRS in San Francisco
January 27-29, 2017
Fort Mason Festival Pavilion
2 Marina Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94123
USA
