The Edge of Intent, MoCP

May 24, 9:36 AMChicago Museum ExaminerJeff Stevenson

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David Maisel, Lake Project 20 (above) and 22 (left)

The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, 600 South Michigan Avenue is home to The Edge of Intent, through July 5th 2009. This group show features photographers who in one way or another are documenting, dreaming, confronting or exposing society’s ideas and failures of Utopian existence.

David Maisel’s  Lake Project, a series of aerial shots of the Owens Valley in southeastern California are printed in large format. Although the topographical subject is always present, these compositions are beautiful abstractions of saturated colors, swirling shapes, and pleasing patterns. Once drawn in the viewer eventually discovers the sinister catalyst behind the form the landscape has taken – diverted water supply, ruination of the land, wind erosion, and large scale ecological disruption.  Read more about the Lake Project.

Also documenting a failed Utopian dream is the series Metacityby Simon Menner where he is recording the homeless and their make-shift shelters and adaptations of specific city structures in Bombay, Chicago, and Paris. These are not photographs of the poor in slums but, rather, how the vision of “the grand city plan” refused to foresee the insistence of the poor and homeless within its structure. The city remains the symbol of the ruling elite reaching for its ideals; the homeless remain adaptive, hungry, and in need.  And yet the strength of these works is in the subtlety of the portrayal of the subject.  When figures appear in these large format prints, they are often cocooned, reclining forms that occupy very little of the composition so that the artist is confronting us, the viewers, and letting us off the hook gently; we are both implicated and released of responsibility.  In this way the work engages the viewer in several ways and with more lasting effect.  Read more about Metacity.

Through manipulation of the images and juxtaposing shantytowns with pristine contemporary architecture, Dionisio Gonzalez confronts the viewer with visual conflict that represents the failure of the systems of government reurbanization, specifically in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The ten artists shown create work varying widely in style, approach, and intent; the fantasy sand cities of Liset Castillo, the 8 minute DVD eGoli of Danielle Roney, the romantic deserted train station interiors of Eric Smith, the maps of Andrew Harrison. Each artist’s work is made more complete through its association with the others. Read Natasha Egan’s (Associate Director and Curator) synopsis of the exhibition here. The excellent curatorial work selecting and arranging this exhibit provides the viewer with intellectually and visually satisfying experiences.

Another artist’s work nearby in the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park at Governors State University in University Park, IL, that explores the topic of failed Utopia is Working on the Failed Utopia 2005, artist: Christine Tarkowski (American, b. 1967)
Materials: screen print on rice paper and laminated fiberglass attached to steel geodesic dome.  By carefully composing a repeated image, she elevates this garbage (discarded roman candle tubes, Modelo beer cans, chicken bones, Newport cigarette boxes) to the level of pattern and creates a visually unifying surface design.

Tarkowski writes that the piece, "is not a dystopia . . . but like all utopias, failed even before the first shovel struck dirt . . . It doesn’t matter if the utopia is in fact realized . . . it is doomed from the moment its founder pronounces the capital “U.”

The need for creating or reaching a paradise or a promised land is deeply imbedded in the human psyche and history.  All indications are that it will continue into our future.  Artists will continue to explore our human condition by walking this Edge of Intent.

For more information:

Museum of Contemporary Photography

Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park