Rachel Black and Jessica Cook: Stilled Lives
Gallery 414
- Garland Fielder -
Disinterested observations count for little in the grand scheme of things. Noodlings on the banal nature of existence rarely belie little beyond the mundane trappings of everyday domesticity, and closer examinations too often reveal nothing profound. Even if this is the intended point, it is a one-liner that merits little in the way of contemplation. There are ways to make such an approach work, though, and somewhat ironically, they tend to be rooted in formal matters more than conceptual conceits. This may seem anathema to many artisanseven more to criticsbut the reality of this notion resounds loudly show after show.
Rachel Black, Untitled 2, 2005
Oil on canvas
68 x 42 inches
Strong examples of successfully confronting banality are present in the works of Rachel Black and Jessica Cook. Black, a figurative painter who composes works culled from found photographs, and Cook, who mostly photographs celebratory events, both employ the pedestrian notion of documentation. Their fare is that of the in-betweenthe sidetracked. Their execution, both in paint and on film, presents the viewer with an almost indelible penetration of everyday existence.
Black, who arranges her compositions via a ready-made synthesis, haphazardly paints several snapshots on canvas, sometimes overlapping and surrounded by a clean white background. The mini-compositions are masked off and cleanly placednot too composed. Her best pieces maintain the devil-may-care posture of the found photo. One can imagine the artist rummaging through shoeboxes in various garage sales or her own closet, mining elements for these compositions. When displaced attachment is toyed with, the paintings' compositions rise above the artifice of Black's methodology. Her sheer love of painting comes through, her craft born of attention, skill and a true understanding of color. It is this reckoning of harmony that entices the viewer. At times self-absorbed, the compositions right themselves through the evident persuasion of Black's palette.
Rachel Black, Untitled, 2005
Oil on canvas
54 x 48 inches
Much could be said about the re-creation of a found re-creation, pulling attention at once towards and away from the found object as an artifact. But Black's paintings simply would not work if this were merely the casenot to say she could create her compositions from just any old scenario. Yet she has chosen not to throw away throwaway images, and this is as important as it is evident. We are confronted with almost uncomfortable displays of domesticityaverage people acting and interacting, well, averagely. What makes the work above average is Black's imposed vision.
Jessica Cook, Pink Roses, 2005
C print
40 x 40 inches
Jessica Cook maintains a similar ethos in her large-format color photographs. Cook's vision is peopled with various celebrants of middle-class America. Her subjects are defined not by their actions as such but captured while momentarily catching their own visage in the mirror, so to speak. In Cook's world, time and life slow down, becoming almost resplendent with unspoken grief. In her photographs, one is uneasy with the people being observed, connecting instead with Cook's detachment from the scene.
What is truly bewildering is the clear conviction with which Cook portrays her world. She is both of and apart from it, observing from afar with a tinge of regret and a sense of awe. There is a maturity in her photographs that contains a universal sense of us vs. them. And, like Black, Cook could not possibly hope to capture this unstated aesthetic without the mastery of technique. Her compositions are a befuddlement of the instantaneous and the prepared for. In some works, one can believe that these people have been preparing for this moment all their lives. Cook has managed to fetishize the fleeting nature of life, relationships and rituals all at once.
Both Black and Cook consciously choose content that is found. Whether they find it at a garage sale or in the recesses of their own lives, the art they create speaks of a deep-rooted desire for the past, for forgotten moments, which mean so much more to us now that they have been forgottenalmost unbearably so.