Spirits in the Material World

While most photographers are concerned with pictorial information, documentation and representation in their work, Eileen Quinlan is interested in ghosts and making pictures of nothing. Her models are smoke, mirrors, reflections, surfaces and photographic film. The resulting images are not about something, stand in for naught and tell very little. The pictures themselves have more to do with constructivist abstract painting and the process of photography than to any photographic reference.

Quinlan's ongoing series, “Smoke and Mirrors,” began in 2004 with an interest in paranormal and spirit photography. Initially, Quinlan sought a narrative bend to her photographs, attempting to manifest spirits and specters with smoke. During this process she began using mirrors, reflectors, foil and mylar in the hopes of adding volume and dimension to her unruly subject. During these experiments Quinlan began to focus less on narrative and more on the formal aspects of her subjects eventually arriving at her current body of work: non-objective photographs.

There are elements of Quinlan's that do reference a few photographers before her. Quinlan's bold colors and stark geometric shapes recall the work of Barbara Kasten and her use of reflections and foil certainly corresponds to the early work of James Welling. In the end, though, Quinlan's work only superficially parallels the work of both these artists; Kasten's work wholeheartedly references architecture and Welling's early work (while somewhat no-referential) relies heavily on form and the sculptural quality of the material. Quinlan's work, however, seldom refers to her materials or references them; her true subject-matter is the process of photography and the nature of image-making. Even though both Kasten and Welling deal with photography as a subject in their respective works, neither photographer allow their photographs to speak directly to the viewer as Quinlan does. Where Kasten and Welling's prints are beautiful, pristine wonderful photographic records they do not always break the mold of precious object. Quinlan's images, themselves lush and gorgeous, do not hide flaws, scratches and dust. The images are fully grounded in photography and its ability to record. There is no hidden flaw in Quinlan's photographs, no need to hide what is there - no misrepresentation, because the photos do not in fact represent anything. Here is where Quinlan's work is most successful, she has taken these tools of representation (the camera. and indeed photography) and created a totally non-representational response.

In our world where image is everything, truth can be veiled by pictures that totally misrepresent the facts, images can be manipulated to obfuscate and mislead and we simply cannot trust everything that we see, Eileen Quinlan's work is a visual breath of fresh air. Her “Smoke and Mirrors,” hide nothing and reveal all they have about
themselves to us. Because the images represent no ideals; mask no meanings and offer no theories they can be looked upon without being gazed. They are remarkable little spirits framed and hung for our pleasure.

Eileen Quinlan's current body of work is on view now through December 9 at Miguel Abreu gallery in New York.
You may see some of it here:
miguelabreugallery.com

You can also find more work here:
suttonlane.com/artist.php?a=eq&p=home

And an interview here:
zoozoom.com/magazine.aspx#type=story&id=414


S. Boonchai

Consciousness raising imagery? The work of Chris Jordan

A seemingly simple premise... turning statistic abstractions into photographs. But incomprehensible figures that seem impossible to elucidate? That's what Chris Jordan does. He makes the invisible, unimaginable figures into visual messages that pull at our consciousness.
In some ways, ignorance is bliss. To read statistics or hear them on the radio allows for dismissal of their significance, an apathetic yawn perhaps. "How can I wrap my mind around those numbers?", we ask ourselves. So we go blank, and glaze over. But, in the back of our mind we worry that those figures are something to reckon with, that they might eventually catch up with us.

Chris Jordan started his journey in art photography appreciating trash. In hot pursuit of color and form, he traveled through dump sites jumping over fences with an 8x10 camera when no-one was around. In conversation with friends, his work read of more than color and form. Based on an image of a massive garbage pile a conversation formed around consumerism. He listened intently and realized here was something he could pursue that tied into his concerns. Enlightened, he was off shooting with a goal to entice such thoughts from viewers.
But it didn't stop at the piles of tires, bottles and discarded cell phones- it continued in every direction, with air jet streams and prison inmate uniforms and uninsured children. Imagine 9 million uninsured children which is the American tally for 2007... Now look at an endless array of 9 million toys piled up filling gallery walls from top to bottom. Now get closer and really see them and let your mind wander to the personal for a moment, a child in your own life perhaps. It's an intellectual game, and from a distance it's even an abstraction ironically like the statistics. However, one is enticed to come a little closer by the sheer beauty of the images. And then a little closer yet. The personal, aesthetic and political merge.
Here we are, one person in a sea of people.
Here's this representation- one prison uniform in a 10 foot panel of 2.3 million folded prison uniforms representing one year of America's incarceration rate, the highest in the world. And then we back up again, feeling a bit ashamed, and reemerge into the abstraction of the sea of blended forms.

M.V.

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