Up & Coming Weekly

January 26, 2021

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1333558

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 13 of 24

WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 2, 2021 UCW 13 COVER STORY Warwick's minimalist approach and the medium of photography itself of- ten seems to lend itself to hurrying us hurries through an exhibit, we move too quickly, without contemplation. Due to the elusive nature of photogra- phy, the opposite needs to take place. The illusive nature of photography is combining the complexity of a contem- porary art in the form of photography with its lingering history, everyone has a camera on their cell phone, and the ever-present hierarchical judgment of photography against other traditional disciplines. The unfounded hierarchy and the fact the everyone have a camera on their cell phone only strengthens my revered respect for artists, like Warwick, who create remarkable photographic images equal to works of carved marble. The argument against the hierarchy in the arts is based on two facts. The hierar- chical position has been outdated for some and each discipline is innately different and brings a particular way of seeing, ideating, and set of skills. An earlier series by Warwick titled "Between the Ground & Sky" supports the above argument. In this body of Warwick wanted to capture the chang- ing landscape of the Danby Marble Quarry in Dorset Mountain, Vermont. (The Danby Quarry, used since the 18th century, is the largest underground marble quarry in the world.) She began photographing the marble because she was "curious about its use but eventually became charmed by the physical history carved into the space." She states: "The heavy unyielding ma- terial takes a geometric form inside a huge organic landscape. I am fascinat- ed by the constant metamorphosis of the space . . . Each method of removal has left an indelible impression on the mountain by destroying its natural state and creating a geometric and ordered new landscape. These are the qualities that I find both interesting and intrigu- ing. I am fascinated by its now formal beauty." The conceptualization and dexterity by Warwick to create her photographs should not be compared to the idea and carving of figure in stone. Each medium brings is own innate qualities and chal- lenges. If anything, the history of pho- tography is far more interesting than representational figure carving that has been repeated and practiced in western art for centuries. Or, as John Berger, in "Ways of Seeing," summarizes: "unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an in- terpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, how- ever naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does." Johanna Warwick graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and De- sign with an MFA in Photography in 2010, and from Ryerson University with a BFA in Photography in 2006. She has been an Assistant Professor of Art & Photography at Louisiana State Univer- sity since 2015 and exhibited in New York, Toronto and other major cities across North America. She was exhib- ited in Fresh at Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and was a selected artist by Lesley A. Martin as part of her Guest Room curating for Der Greif magazine. In all types of disciplines art has the potential to bring a truth to the viewer and "Monument to Strangers: Photo- graphs of Johanna Warwick," meets this criterion. "Monuments to Strangers" opens Feb. 2 at 5:30 p.m. and will re- main up until April. The gallery is lo- cated at 208 Rowan Street in Fayetteville and is open Monday – Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For information call 910-484-6200. Unidentified #13 SONI MARTIN, Gallery 208 Curator. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Printed Woman #8

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Up & Coming Weekly - January 26, 2021