Attachment: An Empty Anthology 5

Artist Statement

This series, Attachment: An Empty Anthology, was created with the goals of expressing my opinion on attachment to objects, and how silly it seems to me. I feel validated in my opinion by making it concrete, and almost superior by giving the stage of fine art. However I also feel somewhat detached and separate from the piece, as I am from the objects it portrays in its essence.

This series refers to Irving Penn’s glove photo, which had a cross drawn or carved over the center of it, although the meaning has changed. It also refers quite visibly to the visual tradition of gothic stain glass windows with the complex shapes created by the doily.

I am always inspired by psychology in my work. In this case the psychology of attachment was my inspiration. Still life photography often focuses on objects and their personification, wether by sexual or emotional means. And after contemplating it, I found it strange to think humans could grow attached to lifeless things. And, as an atheist, I also find it strange how people could believe in religious claims. So I used the objects in the series, all of religious significance as a metaphor. My childhood was filled with religious iconography, each of these objects has distinct memories attached to them, yet I remain unbound to them. Therefore, I found them to be a perfect representation of what I had to say. The objects were clinically shot, each in the same lighting and placement, to show my distance form them, and have the cross over them, both as a reference to the religious nature of the objects, and their antiquated state for me, cut over like an old check destroyed so it could never be used again. But the cross was made with a delicate stroke, in a way that makes keeps it from looking violent. In essence I am showing how strange it seems to me to attached to an objects, the same that is is strange to me to be religious.

When I produce pieces I always spend the most time on the cognition, the concept behind the piece. This implicates the subject of the work, what genre it could belong too (still life, portrait, etc.) and even the number of photos to include. This series has seven photos, because it is a holy number, one that always seems to reappear in religious myths. Art is nothing if not a message, and I find it difficult to make true, fine, art without a meaning. Once I have a concept the production time varies, in this specific piece I spend close to three hours composing and shooting the photos and and another two in the darkroom on film development and 8 hours in the darkroom printing and perfecting the photos.

This work reflects me, as does all my work, by expressing my opinions or my interests. Obviously this one expresses an opinion, showing how I find certain things silly and illogical. Ironically, I am anything but condescending in conversation, however in this piece I seem to very much so towards attachment to objects and religion. This piece is a distillation of my opinion into a potent, and hopefully powerful, body of work. When so much time and effort is put into purifying and expressing an opinion, it tends to become radicalized, not in the piece, but in the process.