Bigger Than A Book, Wilder Than A Tree II
More from the opening of the Bigger Than A Book, Wilder Than A Tree art show in Vancouver on Thursday evening; the other post about this event can be found here. This show features works by Christina Mackie and the late Jerry Pethick. For more information about the artists and their careers, check out the website of the Catriona Jeffries gallery where the exhibit is being shown until 27 October 2012.
Trestle Persons II (left) and III (right). Person viewing not known to resemble trestle.
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Today I show works from the main exhibit space which includes 5 pieces by Christina Mackie and 2 by Jerry Pethick. The Mackie pieces range from a very large redcedar sculpture from 2012 (The Confusion Part I) to a small silver chain (The Confusion Part III) also from 2012. The Confusion Part II was compiled in the same year, but features photographic transparencies taken in 1976. Her other two pieces in this room are Trestle Person II and Trestle Person III, both from 2012 but previously shown in Denmark.
The Confusion Part II (near) & III (far, hanging on wall beside viewers) – 1
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The Confusion Part III – 3
Pieces by Jerry Pethick include Trough from 2001 and Gobi Clone from 1996/1997. My photos of his pieces are from the offices above the gallery – by the time I started to photograph his work the gallery had filled up and it was impossible to get an even remotely clear shot of his large pieces.
Trough, centre of view and closer blue plastic
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Gobi Clone
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See the previous post for more context on taking these pictures. Image treatments today include HDR post processing from 2 or 3 images (sometimes one bracket had to be discarded as there was too much movement of a person to accommodate), tone mapping of single images, and/or regular processing in Lightroom.
Do I have a favourite? Well, I very much like Forestface, in yesterday’s post. And I am very partial to redcedar, so would plump for The Confusion Part I as well. I think the two kind of go together – one like a living forest watching the world around it (somewhat frantically is my impression), the other a two dimensional forest reminder, sawn and beautifully sanded. And that is not to say I don’t like others, because I do. I want to eat olives and soft cheese from some of those plates, and the silver chain could be lived with for years on a bedroom or bathroom wall, somewhere that it can be frequently studied and possible word combinations made out of the letters, just for fun. Probably the art cognoscenti would be appalled at me saying these things, but I suspect that Christina Mackie would not mind. I bet she eats olives and fresh mozzarella off those plates, or the ones that did not make it into the show.
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To see larger views, click on any of the thumbnails below, navigate with the arrows and escape to return to this page.
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- Nightlight, spare plates in office (goes with yesterday’s post)
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- Gobi Clone – 1
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- Trough, centre of view and closer blue plastic
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- Trough – 1, centre of floor
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- The Confusion Part III – 3
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- The Confusion Part III – 2
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- The Confusion Part III – 1
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- The Confusion Part II & III – 3
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- The Confusion Part II & III – 2
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- The Confusion Part II – 1
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- The Confusion Part II (near) & III (far, hanging on wall beside viewers) – 1
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- Trestle Person III
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- Trestle Person II
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- Trestle Persons – 3
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- Trestle Persons – 2
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- Trestle Persons – 1
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- The Confusion Part I – 6
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- The Confusion Part I – 7
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- The Confusion Part I – 5
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- The Confusion Part I – 4
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- The Confusion Part I – 3
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- The Confusion Part I – 2
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- The Confusion Part I – 1
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Canon EOS 5Dii, Canon 50mm/1.4 and Nikkor-N 24/2.8mm lenses, ISO1250 and ISO100 for less populated shots.
burnt embers 
My American mid-west readers might be interested to know Christina is showing in Chicago in April 2014: http://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/Exhibitions/Intro.Christina-Mackie.654.html
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What a great post, great images of GREAT subjects!! I just love art like this that makes you work for it!
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Thanks Toad. It was quite a lot of fun coming to grips with the ghosting issues of people moving and so on when processing these images. Learned lots, and hopefully did not represent the art or the artist’s intentions.
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One viewer of the exhibit has posted their thoughts here (no title/link to this entry at this time but it follows immediately after this one, if you are having trouble finding it in the future). This tumblr post is illustrated with one of the images from yesterday’s post.
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Congratulations on capturing the essence of Christina Mackie’s work. You have managed to get the warmth and subtle tones of the cedar planks in Confusion 1 that eluded me completely when I tried to photograph this piece. Confusion 3 is also beautifully photographed.
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Thank you Val – it was nice seeing your there. I even spot you in a photo or two!
I had a lot of trouble with the cedar colour – the light in the room made it more grey than it should have been. If the HDR processing or tonemapping could not bring that colour up to my satisfaction, then I painted a mask on each of those boards and brought it out a little bit more. I am glad that you seem to think I got the colour about right.
As for Confusion 3, my own confusion failed to see the words in there, but I am told by my partner what it says, and it makes another connection to something familiar from younger years. I am not sure that my pictures let people have a good close look to read it for themselves – I was using too shallow a depth of field and the lower part is a bit out of focus or I could have zoomed in more tightly on it.
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what does it say? I couldnt figure it out
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‘Gingko biloba memory tree’.
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