Ends Of Things, 1993-97

Ends Of Things are photographs of all the ends of objects in my house - all hand size, meant for holding or interacting with in some way. I isolated the objects in front of colorful fields, threw the camera out of focus (enough to take away surface definition while still maintaining essential form), and made twin prints. Pairing the twin prints together I created a closed form from the two open forms – a new whole from two halves. Here I was interested in privileging the interior form of the photograph and subverting the exterior rectangle that creates the “window” you normally look into, thus making more of an object with the images.

This work explores the breakdown of supposed reliable forms of perceptual processing – such as devices made to mimic the human eye. Here I do not use the camera as an indexical tool - instead of processing the image clearly I create a distortion that produces something altogether different. While the referent in this work will always be the original object, it shifts away from this object, referencing an ambiguous form having nothing to do with the original object.

This work consists of hundreds of pieces - an inventory of objects. They are assembled together in various groups and configurations depending on the space of installation.
 
 
 

 
 


Ends Of Things, Installation view from the show Variants at International Center of Photography, New York, 1992
 
 


Ends Of Things, Installation view from the show Variants at International Center of Photography, New York, 1992
 
 


Computer Drawings (Mac Paint), collages of dot matrix prints on paper, Installation view from the show Variants at International Center of Photography, New York, 1992
 
 


Ends Of Things, Installation view at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2014
 
 

Variants, exhibition brochure, International Center of Photography, NY, 1992
Click on the image below to download Variants pdf.