Layers of Memory           by Gary Justis

I was thinking about how images sometimes take our minds to a place that transcends the very substance that makes up the content of the picture we are looking at. As an addendum to memory, photographs offer a priceless role in helping us to capture moments that deform our sense of time. In turn, we continually critique the space between thought and materiality, reconciling the identities and placement of what lies in view. There is value in the questions we consider.

We want to see new things, and offer our minds conundrums that stretch our thinking processes. Even when our minds are lazy, stretching our thoughts is similar to stretching our muscles at the start of the day. In a general way, the activity feels good.

Capturing “things as they lay” in the still life images seen here signifies the shuffling activities of small projects interrupting a certain order…the more permanent objects in my little domestic setting are neatly compartmentalized, tranquil and at rest. The papers, envelopes, receipts, and appliances are transitory, and my visual record of this transitory stuff makes a distinctive statement in the sanction of a “living space.” Seen in this more generous context, there is beauty in the contrast between material chaos and order.

Snapping an image close up, then pulling away in a secession of pictures extends the limits of the original images’ allotted time. It is similar to a filmic moment, but with the added pleasure of thousands of missing frames. The time between images is immeasurable, and distinct from movies in the portions of time lost without any record. There is a scintillating mystery in this.

With a collection of objects, my visual record can take an array of forms. I like to study the peculiar things my wife and I collect, hoping the unexpected, fanciful details will conspire to enhance my understanding of the conflict between order and chaos in Nature. I’m not collecting dental, or medical equipment, but rather warmer objects that are closer to simpler labors.

Memory Pots are works of art that show cast-off fragments, the accumulated “crust” of experience, bonded to a handmade, or manufactured object…most commonly a glass, or ceramic container with an interesting shape. The small shards, shells and other objects affixed to these forms show little difference with the detritus we see on a littered street, or in an old, abandoned house or apartment; yet in most cases, the fragments have been selected to fit with all the other forms, similar to the wall building artistry of a free-minded stone mason.

The difference in masonry and the construction of these pots lay in the fanciful disparity of small fragments, all containing bits of history through their former function, moving from utility to a more abstract realm, while remaining stubbornly purposeful. The putty, or bonding agent records the fingerprints of the maker/s. in some cases the prints are traces from an earlier century. These objects preserve a subtext, recorded from myriad situations of domestic commotion, taking place within the space of one, or several lives. They offer a visual record that survives, independent of diaries, news articles and digitization. The visual power of these forms lies in their multifarious surface comprehended as a whole object, mimicking the texture and complexities of us…the remarkable containers of experience.             

 photos copyright © 2012 by Gary Justis

Modern Movement, 2009, marker on paper, 24 x 18 inches

Veiled Nature: the drawings of Larry Miller        by Gary Justis

The work of Chicago based artist Larry Miller comes out of an attitude towards the “sensations” he experiences in the creative act. This is probably most obvious in understanding his painstaking drawing technique where he amasses thousands of applied dots of diverse intensity and color to make an image.

For Miller, the paper surface he confronts, even as he begins with its unadulterated whiteness, implies a vastness of space that gives an ample field onto which the imagination might project a visual indication of pure consciousness. This is the “applied wreck” of reality and fiction that most serious artists confront in the search for the elusive border between the recognizable and untried image.

Magnetic Attraction, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Miller talks about his process:

 For me, each dot is a gestural action. Space is altered in each instance that a new dot is put down. I respond intuitively to the unexpected play of dots as they accumulate to help create my forms.

Artists continually make assumptions about the inner characteristics of all matter and hidden spaces in the world. They speculate on qualities of the unseen, while celebrating the mind’s theoretical images of things kept from their gaze in the natural world. With these delicate drawings, Miller opens the elusive door of Nature for our gaze, manufacturing both care and impulse in the infusion of light and color upon the page. He is a master of a type of temporal space that is understated as we look at the actual work, but with careful and purposeful skill, he manufactures images that remain in our memory; indelible, meaningful, and beautiful.

Semi-Private Conversation, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

The exploration of beauty in our age is important. This is critical amongst the formidable challenges of our social systems, and the malleable structures of our very culture. A masterful respite for the collective mind occurs with an emersion in beauty. This is a weighty enterprise…one that re-connects us with an affable version of our humanity.

Staghorn, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Magnetic Attraction #2, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Chilkat, 2010, marker on paper, 18 x 24 inches

Hook, Line and Sinker, 2010, marker on paper, 18x 24 inches

Interactive 2010, marker on paper, 18 x 24 inches 

Sounding, 2009, marker on paper, 23 x 14 inches

Pollination, 2009, marker on paper, 24 x 18 inches

See more work by Larry Miller

These gazes are real, as fiction goes, and they serve us with plausible anecdotes for placing synthetic figures in an American landscape. Many have been cast out of their original situations, and are most likely victims, each with an uncertain reckoning in a conscious world.

The reality of the barrier between composition-plastic and skin makes us curious as we wade deeply into the territory of human surrogates and robot-companions. They are lifeless in reality, without “soul”, yet we have a need to find a place of respite for personalities that do not actually exist. They are a creation based on an image…an image that inspires stories.

The facial rendering of a mannequin in a photograph lives as truly as a photograph of a familiar face. They stare back with a seeming awareness, or knowingness that delivers a measure of vulnerable, yet questioning certitude. The thing they seem to want for is merely a phantom of desire. They are reflections of our scintillating levels of need, and, in their way, they are carriers of beauty.

Portraits of manneqins taken in various shops, restaurants, and homes in New Jersey,

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois and Kansas

 photos copyright © 2011 by Gary Justis