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Cereal
| 10.22.2005
For the last several years, I've been really interested in cereal. Not necessarily the hundreds of years of history that accompany some of the original to-be breakfast food. It's more about taking a closer look and appreciating the true essence and character of these jewels. So much beauty and detail is lost on us each day because we don't always have out of context experiences. Take for instance, manhole covers. Most of our experiences with manhole covers is experienced while in the car or running across the street. These metallic circular works of art are beautiful and tell there own personal historical story about where they came from, how long they've been around and what they were (are) covering up. Same for cereal. Most of the time, when we eat cereal, we're just waking up or in my case, going to bed. Indi (my daugher) and I love to split a bowl of Capt'n Crunch while we watch M*A*S*H reruns. Yes! These only come on later at night so no need to "preach" to me. She's a little night owl!
So my point is that most of us don't think about what cereal really looks like. Sure, we remember that Fruit Loops have nice colors, Lucky Charms have nice shapes and Special K is good for you while tasting exactly like cardboard, but have you ever really taken a close look at these glorious confectionary objects? We've all seen pictures of insects and objects magnified to the Nth degree. Notice how they take on a whole new presence and meaning when they're experienced out of context? In my opinion, cereal is some of the first mass adopted edible artwork in modern history.
Several years ago, I was invited to be in a show at the Ashua Irving Gallery in Boston. The theme was fruit. I had a feeling that most of the participants were going to stick mostly with oils and pencil sketches as their medium. Meanwhile, I was heading toward something called exhibition suicide. I decided to use pears (who doesn't love pears) and place them in out-of-context settings (light bulb, intercom and laundry rope). I also decided to photograph them in a large format at long exposures. The idea was to experience the pears in an alternative setting and capture that experience in an alternative medium. As a result, I think viewers understand the pears at a level not typically experienced in an oil on canvas. So once again, we start to understand and appreciate subject matter at new and more intimate levels when viewed out of context.
My latest project is called Cereal. Working with acclaimed photographer, Frank Rapp (his pinhole series is one of the most beautiful landscape collections around). I'll be in the studio in a couple of short weeks shooting 12 different types of cereal up close in both digital and medium format film. I'll also be leveraging my success with the Fruit series and printing these out to 25 x 40 IRIS watercolor prints. I haven't lined up the opening yet but stay tuned and remember to look more closely at your cereal tomorrow morning.
posted at 7:37 AM
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5 Comments:
Too much of coincidence .... I was just having some frosted mini-wheats this morning and I was like.. Does someone had paint the frosting on..
;-)
Cant wait to see the photos!
Dave
Sounds like my experience of eating oatmeal every morning pales in comparison...the visual isn't pretty, except when adding Craisins -- the red translucency is nice.
It was great to get the "back story" of the pear photographs. Looking forward to your next exhibit.
Scout. Beautiful and original idea. Most of the art out there in the world is awful. I'd can't wait to see these and maybe even own a print.
Rob
Nice imagery. Are you still planning on shooting the parking garage booths this winter?
- Heather
By the way, manhole covers are round so they won't fall back in the hole.
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