The Limits of Photography, MoCP

The Limits of Photography show at MoCP revolves around the far reaches of the photograph image as it seemingly begins to break down into something else, or rather is built up behind the mechanical realm of the photograph itself. The artists that curator Rod Slemmons has chosen represent, in his or her own way, unique perspectives on the possibility of the photograph as a means for manifesting experience. These manifestations are at once contemporary and filled with an archaic decadence.

The work of Rhona Shand, at once visible in the front most space of the MoCP, depicts a series of decaying spaces where a figure often melts into the background or appears as a ghost-like remnant of what was once a person. These images follow an aesthetic of illustration and where one color bleeds into another, almost look as though they possess a watercolor base. Too, collage comes to mind and graphite as pieces of two images sometimes come together in surreal layers. For example, in the piece The Yellow Wallpaper, a figure seems to meld into the wall or to be emerging from it.

Randy Hayes display, a large grid of images called Pass Christian/ Koyota leaves one wondering about the deconstruction of the image itself. This work is a pair of extremely large grids that have been pinned to the wall with blue tacks. The blue tacks point to the piece-ness of the work, but also detract from its overall potential. The Asian-infused scene depicted in these two large composites are chaotic, but they do evoke a sense of disorientation more than a single notion. Perhaps this was the point.

Doug Stapleton’s collages showcase the reuse of images in order to construct a new idea. The weight of each image he chooses to comprise a new composition carries with it a meaning that complicates the collages at times. Simultaneously, the tradition of collage contradicts the quick capture of the photograph as mechanical output and begins an interesting dialogue with the viewer about what is most significant in his work, the fact that these compositions derive from photographs or that they are a new thing and then, speaking to what end? I’m not sure.

Finally, John Brill’s toned silver prints, often self-portraits, are abstracted and small photographs. They are smartly shown using photo corners some of the time, and other times below a full matte. The inconsistency of the way in which these images are shown make one wonder if some of these images are more delicate than others and then why they seem to be privileged, showing the edge of the image and thereby underscoring the material nature of the print itself.

Overall, this show offers a varied look into the process through which photographs have been used to ends outside the norm. Slemmons does a fair job highlighting difference in the show, but I’m not sure the difference presented is enough to offer a drastic new insight into the vehicle of the photograph itself.