| MARIA
PASSAROTTI |
 |
Aura
2012
digital c-print from negative
29.5 x 37.25 inches |
 |
A
Place Filled With Secrets
2012
digital
c-print from negative
29.5 x 37.25 inches |
|
| LEAH
OATES
|
 |
Beijing,
China, Lotus 2
2008-2009
color photograph
16 x 20 inches |
 |
Beijing,
China 13
2008-2009
color photograph
27 x 43 inches |
|
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE | April 9, 2012
Recent Photographs by Leah Oates & Maria Passarotti
April 19-June 3, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 19, 6-8 pm.
MARIA PASSAROTTI
Maria Passarotti’s current series “In The Night”
is staged in Rockland County, NY, a suburban region along
the Hudson River, and in New York City.
Reacting to her previous “Rooftop” series, the
artist has now moved to street level, working in alleyways
and along suburban roads, where quaint main street and historic
buildings play muse to the artist’s fertile imagination.
Passarotti shoots her photographs at night, often lit simply
by streetlights or with the headlights of her own car. The
darkness helps to shroud the scene in mystery and create a
narrative where there was none. The artist crops out extraneous
elements, creating the theatrical stage set she had envisioned
when first scouting the site. There is a haunted beauty in
the aging brick facades and faded murals, as well as a longing
for a simpler time. A house with a picket fence and shrub
seems to have wandered off the set of a Grapes of Wrath
revival, expressing an all-American, nostalgic quality.
Shadowy figures—sometimes barely discernible—populate
the fringes of the scenes, indicating a human presence. Individuals
or clusters of figures flow through each frame, moving beyond
as mysteriously as they had entered.
Passarotti achieves this effect by shooting herself in long
exposure time, from 1-15 minutes, so she can flow through
the scene, costumed and in character, while photographing
it.
LEAH OATES
Leah Oates “Transitory Space” series (2008-11)
is comprised of color photographs taken in China, Canada,
Finland and the US that explore the notion of flux. Oates
has been examining the idea that everything is in a constant
state of change in the natural and man-made worlds, and that
movement, not stasis, is the norm. The artist achieves this
transitory, impressionistic quality through double and sometimes
triple exposure in the camera onto the negative.
From Newfoundland the artist gives us pictures of industrial
telephone towers, shot against intense blue skies. Shadows
and wind move across the images and the crisscrossing of branches,
tower architecture and cables create a filigree pattern that
belies the industrial subject matter.
During her Beijing residency, Oates captured the rapid changes
taking place in China through images of buildings being razed
to make room for new construction. Oates’ photographs
from Finland show us that she can make mundane, industrial
objects—a chain link fence a set of train tracks, a
house in disrepair—look exquisite and refined. Her message
seems to be that there is beauty in aging and progress in
erosion.
Oates’ photographs are rendered in mirrored and superimposed
pattern.
There’s a sense that we are witness to something fleeting,
which may evaporate into the mist. We may wish to reach out
and touch them, as if to confirm that these hallucinatory,
ephemeral pictures are not imagined.
additional
information & works by Maria Passarotti
additional
information & works by Leah Oates
For
information contact:
Susan Eley: 917.952.7641
susie@susaneley.com
| www.susaneleyfineart.com |