Eileen Jakeway Julie Hicks LBST 1105 10/4/13 Light Factory Response My journey through the Light Factory

opened my eyes to the meticulous planning and intentional construction behind an art exhibit. On one hand, this resulted simply from the fact that we had the artist behind it all giving us a personal tour. On the other, it was one of the first things I noticed when I walked in, My experience of the exposition of Alternative Processes, was more about being aware of how I was perceiving the space, than the art itself. The gallery was rather dull, color-wise. I noticed the grays of the walls and the magnets and the black of the frames, paired with the brown of the wooden floor. The light streamed down from the white bulbs illuminated from the ceiling, so the gallery did not feel cold, just mysterious. The layout of the space itself felt very geometric, very mapped out. And in fact, it was. All the lines of the space were straight and sharp. Every section felt distinct and the spacing worked very effectively to die it all together. As I discovered upon asking, the left half of the room was larger than the right and the pieces were not all arranged in a uniform fashion. The different sizes of the art affected how they were spaced and stacked, if they were horizontal or vertical and by extension, were in the room they were placed. Being able to access that as a viewer really intrigued me and made me think more not just about the art but about how I perceived the art. I liked how the different collections were separated in that they were hung on distinct walls but worked together in affecting you as you stood in the center of them all.

The way they progressed also worked together; it seemed as if they were taking you on a journey through time via the processes used by the artist. By walking around the exhibit, you were taking a journey, in which each art piece was its own record of the trip. As I became more aware of my own experience of the exhibit, I started paying closer attention to that of others. I was looking at people looking at art. Is this an artistic experience as well? It might have been detrimental because it distracted me from the art, but in a sense, it was just another way in which the art was affecting my surroundings and me, by extension. The gallery made it very easy for me to just sit and watch and look at the art and its viewers and that appealed to me very much. It also surprised me in a way, because when I first walked in, I thought there would be no way for me to turn my eyes from the creepy freckle display or the showcase of half-naked women. Various pieces in both collections grabbed my attention immediately, due to their unconventional appearance. The last important aspect of the gallerys set-up was how it made me think. I started to see everything within a frame. And then I thought about our entire lives and how we see everything through a frame, within a frame, inside another frame. This viewpoint is not unique to the Light Factory, but the aesthetic features of the gallery certainly brought this idea more to my immediate attention. Adam by Raymond Grubb, struck me due to its composition but also because of the contrast it struck with the other pieces of the collection. Whereas the other pictures were straightforward portraits of various faces, the figure in Adam is on the ground, eyes closed, with his head turned to the side. Three aesthetic characteristics of the piece that attracted me were: effects of color in the piece and in the collection as a whole, the nature of the blurred lines outlining the figure, and the position of the man on the ground. The

color, or lack thereof, focused me more on the figure in the picture itself, rather than the composition. I pondered the man in the image, and the title of the work. Adam, like the Biblical first man, is on the ground, defeated on the ground, covered in moss. The harsh contrast of color, black and white, does not leave much room for movement. The focus is solely on Adams face, the rest blurs into the background; only the flowers remain as beacons of hope. The color works together with the curvilinear lines used by the artists. The blurred aspect of the work works with the idea of the fallen man: the indefinite moment at which morality became grey area and Adam fell, due to Eves choice. The transition of Adam from his position closest to God to the fallen Man we know today, happened in a very unsure environment, in which Eve easily lost her footing. The last aspect of the work that contributed to this feeling of Adam as the fallen man is his actual position. The fact that his eyes are closed, that he is on the ground, on his stomach and entirely powerless, is symbolic. It is almost as if a force were pressing down on his back, pinning him down. Whether or not the artist intended for it to be this way, there is heavy symbolism present in the aesthetic presentation of the piece. Lastly, the piece is composed of waxed platinum palladium. While I do not understand as much about this process as an expert, I would say that the method the artist used greatly contributes to the work as a whole. Platinum is very stable against chemical reactions that might degrade the print, so these images are estimated to last up to thousands of years. The durability of the piece also speaks to the eternity of its subject. The name Adam is as old as human history itself. The story of Adam and Eve has been passed on for thousands and thousands of years. For as long as these ideas are tossed around, this piece will be there to chime in. Also, since the platinum sits on top of the paper, the print has an absolutely

non-reflective surface that provides a large tonal range. The effects of the black and white colors would not have been as pronounced without the use of this process. Ive always been fascinated with the Fall of Mankind as an artistic idea. It is a heavy idea that, if accepted universally, has intense implications for how we exist as humans today. Reading Paradise Lost by John Milton, during my senior year in high school certainly had an effect on me. Especially when I researched elements of The Fall recurring in Southern Literature and other aspects of art, I realized how significantly this notion has permeated our culture. Personally, I struggle a lot internally with what it means to be a good person. I constantly strive to ask myself questions about morality, its origins and its implications. I think that the idea of an initial fall has some artistic virtue to it that is naturally intriguing, from a religious standpoint or not. This leads me into the very serious cultural connections I think the piece is making. The Fall was the result of a choice, some would argue the first real choice ever made by mankind. However, if this fallen figure was the result of this decision, what does this mean for the rest of us? Clearly we are imperfect people but have we gotten up again? I think it is easy to submit, to lie defeated on the ground like Adam, but that if we truly make a conscious choice of our own to improve ourselves. It was harder to select a second piece. There was a picture of a woman with freckles in the collection across the room that jarred my senses upon entering the gallery, but I was more mesmerized by the photograph by Joni Sternbach, labeled 09.02.12 #8. It was a picture of a girl in Lakey. Rincon, CA., part of the Surfland series. The main aesthetic quality that created the 2 other aspects of the composition that really appealed to me was the color. It created a strange vintage effect on the viewers perception of time,

aided by the props used in the photo. It also skewed the perception of the girls age. This aspect of the photograph was unsettling, because it was hard to get a solid grasp on where you were in time and space. These effects were enhanced by the process used to create the photograph. The tintype became post popular in the time of the civil war. We modern viewers do not recognize this form because we have not seen it often. Steinbach played off this initial confusion using wooden surfboards in her images, which makes them reminiscent of an older time. The process used by the artist created these strange colors and effects, only aided by the props and the ambiguity of the models used. I felt personally connected to the piece probably in the same way that most people feel connected to the open ocean. The idea that some humans have learned to harness the waves and ride them using a board is magical, a true testament to the union of people and nature. The ocean is representative of our lives, I believe and walking along the shore is what most of us do our entire lives. Seeing a girl, so seemingly young and yet so strong, standing defiantly beside a surfboard stirred something inside me. I too would love to sail away, to lose myself out on the waves, just to find out what Ive got in me and what it takes to discover it. I think this is also a universal theme: the desire to explore new worlds is inherent in all of us. The fact that this series was so popular signifies that as a culture, this Surfland fascinates us. We value individuality, the instinct to forge our own path, blaze our own trail, and to overcome the challenges the ocean poses. Additionally, I see a universal theme of the connection of humans past and present. These desires and values have been passed down to us from ancestors that initiated the first migration. The contemporary photograph evokes sentiments of the past and uses an outdated process.

Bits of the past move into the present with us, we cannot ever escape them. That is always going to be true and something that I believe humans have trouble grappling with. Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to the Light Factory. It helped me to become more aware of the composition of everything I encounter and consider the purpose behind the construction. I enjoyed experiencing art through others eyes by watching them view the art. Learning about the different photographic processes certainly enhanced this experience, as well as made it very memorable in reflection about my own life and how I put it all together.