Autobiography: Family History Shredded

In memory of all the family letters I could have read that were burned in an incinerator in the 1940s.

For all the unlabeled photographs where identities are long lost.

For all the stories where the truth is untold.

For all the unknown suppositions.

For all the hypotheses.

étapes: 229

Sometimes projects have a life of their own long after I am through with them. Emoji Art History is one. In December, I was asked by étapes, a French design and cultural magazine, to include some of my works in their upcoming publication on "Signs and Symbols." I finally received one in the mail (well at least close enough where my cousin could photograph the pages and text them to me)!

 

Ultimately, only one was published in Geff Pellet's essay, "Que Veulent Les Emojis?" Time to brush up on my French.

One of these days I will have to start a list of the myriad of ways my last name is spelled, however, it most likely will not number over half a dozen as the one below is most common.

Viva Edvard Munch!

 [All photographs in this blog post are courtesy of DKG.]

Soaked in the Great Salt Lake Redux

Last year nearly to the day, Kyla Tighe photographed me dipping paper in the Great Salt Lake for the Postcard Collective. [image above courtesy of Kyla].

I sent one to Mail Artist Ernst Richter from Berlin and something started happening (and continues to this day). My postcard has traveled all over the world and the documentation appeared in my mailbox for the first 44 days and in my inbox everyday thereafter. Ernst also paid very close attention to my influences and references to them are also present. Below are some of the highlights followed by one more action in the name of art that occurred at Spiral Jetty on 1st May.

"A Fake Cake and a Fake Cake" [Ernst Richter]

"Two Berliners and Newspaper" [Ernst Richter]

"With Sleeping Cat Henry, Berlin-Ruhleban" [Ernst Richter]

"With wrapped bathing trunks. Forumbad Olympiastadion, Berlin-Charlottenburg" [Ernst Richter]

"With the hands of 3 Berlin-born brothers. Berlin-Spandau" [Ernst Richter]

"Inside Richard Serra, Berlin Junction. Philharmonie, Berlin-Tiergarten" [Ernst Richter]

"Salt-Spiral, Water and Card. Berlin-Ruhleben" [Ernst Richter]

"Yellow Friday in Berlin" (After Sophie Calle's Chromatic Diet) [Ernst Richter]

"Riezler Alpsee, Austria" [Ernst Richter]

"A well in Hittisau, Austria" [Ernst Richter]

"Berlin Wall" [Ernst Richter]

"In the river bed of  the Bregenzerache, Austria" [Ernst Richter]

"Waldfriedhof Heerstrasse, Berlin-Charlottenburg" [Ernst Richter]

"Fence post 82. Murellenteich, Berlin" [Ernst Richter]

"Fence post 53. Murellenteich, Berlin" [Ernst Richter]

"Fence post 9. Murellenteich, Berlin" [Ernst Richter]

The Berlin Born Brothers' father then took the postcard to Thailand (and later it visited Spain). The above three photographs are from the first trip.

I then took Ernst and the Berlin Born Brothers back to Spiral Jetty...

... this year's place where circles are closed. Thanks, Ernst and the Berlin Born Brothers (and their father), for keeping my love of Mail Art alive.

It took three days to upload these photographs on nearly existent, occasional wifi

I am where there are two radio stations (country and classic rock) but I prefer to listen to music like this. I am where the US Postal Service only delivers mail on MWF. I am where taxidermists have a steady income for life. I am getting work done but I take a lot of walks and find visual antonyms in the interior and exterior landscape. They look a lot like this:

Four months later and I miss my cats...

... so I've been staring at other people's photographs (and one painting) of them.

Andrew B. Myers, The Wonderkid

William Wegman, Looking at, 1973

 Jamie Campbell, From Still Life Cats

Bobby Doherty

Jacob Aue Sobol, From Arrivals and Departures

Osang Gwon, From Park, 2014

David Brandon Geeting

Marc Dennis, Night Out, 2012

Balthus, The Last Studies

J. Carrier from Elementary Calculus

Thomas Gardiner, From Untitled USA

Additions to the Art Department

Although I am supposed to be engrossed in the Autobiography in Water series during my sabbatical, the Art Department creeps in to tell me that I am far more excited about making these photographs than any of the others. I am composing a brief story for this image (and the final one) - both are still in progress. It was taken at the Oregon State University Art Department in Corvallis, Oregon in March. Its history is tangentially related to mine and it is the first one taken that is not at a school where I attended (but I taught from 2002-2005).

At the end of April I revisited Boise State University for the fourth time in two years and was finally able to take the photographs of the next three classrooms properly. What a lesson in patience! Here is the old painting classroom, now a space for life drawing/anatomy but more notably the one where the peephole was cut into the homasote from my father's office. I wanted a blank chalkboard because despite the experience of seeing into a space covertly, nothing ever happened on the other side. Ever.

Awhile ago, I found an old journal where I wrote about the first two weeks of taking classes with my father for the first time. This circumstance took place in Drawing 1 in the very same location.

This space is much more important than the image would ever indicate. It was my photography classroom where my professor Brent Smith taught me how to see color. During his Color Temperature lecture, he pointed to the light shining through the top of the blinds bouncing off the ceiling. He noted how high noon sun is blue in hue - I never forgot what that looked like. Everything about photography centers around light (and for me, color) and now the windows are sealed. When examined at a larger scale, one can see the blue sneaking in through the center.

I am still working on the stories in my father's letter. Asking police officers to take their portrait, finding models to pose nude and in a body stocking, acquiring a metal box with very specific dimensions, and wondering how to make a facsimile of human feces is proving to be a challenge. So I wait until I return to academia to continue...

If A Then B: Postcard Collective Spring 2016

Because Stalking Artists: In Pursuit of Home never dies...

With a behind the scenes photograph by Amelia Morris (and special thanks for watching my back during this ridiculous affair).