The day we went to Apple Store heaven in downtown Charleston, SC, Linda and I also stopped at the Charleston County Public Library’s Main Branch to restock. Linda headed for the novels and I headed to the selection of books on CD. I’d be hitting the delivery trail again soon so I needed to find some books I haven’t listened to before – which is getting to be a challenge. Not that the Library doesn’t have lots of books on CD to choose from. I just don’t care to listen to many of the subjects. I need authors who can keep me awake in the wee hours of the night and morning.
I picked up a few new Elmore Leonard books there, so it looks like Leonard and James Lee Burke will be doing the job of keeping me awake this month – along with NPR and the BBC.
If I’m at the Library in downtown Charleston, I’m going to be visiting the current exhibit up in the Saul Alexander Foundation Gallery and this time it was an abstract photography exhibition by Greg Schmitt.
I thought I knew who this artist was, but I wasn’t sure as there wasn’t much information being offered on the handout left in the gallery for visitors. It contained three paragraphs – sort of an artist’s statement about the works in the exhibit, a request for visitors to sign the book left in the gallery and tell the artist what you thought of his work, and the name of the artist. There was nothing offered as to how you might get in contact with the artist – if you had a question or might want to purchase a work.
Most of the exhibits shown at this gallery space are always accompanied by lots of info on how to get a hold of the artist for further info or transactions. No one wants to take the chance that someone would try and find someone at the Library for further info – not that you couldn’t get that information – it’s more of how impulsive people are or how much in a hurry they often are.
I got the impression that this artist was offering these works for viewing only and was looking for people’s reactions – almost as an experiment. There were no titles on the images offered, no price list for possible purchases, and the artist didn’t even sign the images. This was not your usual exhibition.
I later learned that this was the photographer who I thought it was and he is a professor of communications at the College of Charleston. So was there more going on here than what this picture of a gallery exhibit presented? I don’t know, but part of the artist’s statement might give a clue.
Schmitt wrote, “I want you to have the opportunity to study the images without being influenced by what they are. Recognition forces you to think of the images as particular objects rather than nameless ones. Even naming these images attempts to force you to see in a particular way. I don’t want that. I want you to enjoy, for instance, the hues just for themselves.”
And, that’s what you get with these 18 images – all about 8″ x 10″ in size. You get extraordinary colors in all kinds of shades and hues – in patterns and textures run wild. I didn’t find myself looking for objects to figure out what the images photographed might have been at all. Digital photography is one of the new wonders of the ever-changing medium of photography in the art world.
Less than 200 years old, photography, unlike other mediums used to create art has never stopped evolving. Technology is wonderful and the possibilities in the hands of a creative person are unlimited. They don’t do me any good. The digital camera and today’s computers with fantastic software can only take a person with no talent into the realm of being creative – so far. These innovations are just tools to the real artists.
Like other abstract works of art there has to be something that grabs the viewer and demands their attention and hold it long enough to keep them looking – just color and patterns won’t always do it. And, I’ve always wondered what it is that attracts me to some abstract works and not others – even works created by the same artist.
I found that many of Schmitt’s works did it for me, but without titles I’m lost in my limited descriptive abilities to tell you which works did. Unfortunately this is another exhibit which I ran into near or at the end of its life.
The exhibit, A State of Mind, which I found on the Library’s website will end on July 30, 2008. Having not known that title until I sat down to write this entry, I’d have to say that maybe the experiment worked – if there was an experiment at hand here, as I was put in a certain state of mind in viewing these images – a state of wonder.
Now that could mean good and bad things, but I would think that this would be a worthy accomplishment for any artist. To have the viewer walk away wondering about what they just viewed. I think I’d be a little concerned if I was an artist and someone saw my works in an exhibit and it left them the minute they walked away – out of sight, out of mind. That does happen at times.
I’ve contacted the artist to see if we can get some of these images to show here. If we don’t, I’m sorry I wasn’t prepared with my digital camera – again.
Other Business Pertaining to the Saul Alexander Foundation Gallery
Back on June 25, 2008, I posted a blog entry about the Library’s call for exhibit proposals for the Dec. 08 through Dec. 09 season. It was called “An Overlooked Opportunity”. I included their call to artists in my entry and it can be found on our Carolina Arts website under the heading Art News – then Dated Opportunities. When I called to inquire about this exhibit and the artist, I also asked if they were getting many proposals and I’m disappointed to say that they are not, at this date. The deadline is Sept. 5, 2008, and I know how artists like to wait until the last minute to respond to such opportunities, but don’t wait too long. If artists act like this space isn’t useful as an exhibition space – I’m sure the Library can find a use for it. Like filling it up with more books on CD for me. I could live with that, but I’d rather see it continue to show art. It’s up to you artists out there.