Wish Book: Lay of the Land with John Pearson
Crosstown Arts Crosstown Concourse 1350 Concourse Ave. Memphis, TN 38104
Sept. 21-Dec. 2, 2018
Crosstown Arts is pleased to present “Wish Book: Lay of the Land” with photography, both traditional and experimental, and video by John Pearson from September 21 through December 2. The exhibition opens on Friday, September 21 from 6-8 pm.
Pearson’s work will be on view in the Crosstown Arts East Gallery and East Atrium, located in Suite 280 of Crosstown Concourse. The opening reception will also feature a special performance by >mancontrol<, the electronic duo of Robby Grant and Dave Shouse, at 7 pm.
This is the third installment of Crosstown Arts’ tri-annual Wish Book series, which brings internationally recognized artists, filmmakers, and critics to Memphis three times per year. The series takes its name from the famed Sears Catalog, a nod to Crosstown Arts’ home inside Crosstown Concourse (a former Sears distribution facility). The first two Wish Book exhibitions, which featured artists William Jones and James Benning, respectively, focused solely on artists’ films, but “Lay of the Land” will feature both photographic works and video by Pearson.
The exhibition surveys three photographic projects from 2009 - 2018, exploring a range of materials and techniques, accompanied by a selection of videos from 1999 - 2016. Pearson’s work is unconventional in its application of photography, conveying an exploratory approach that challenges the representational character of photography while embracing its indexical nature. The process of making images in and of a landscape is a through line that ties this work together. Pearson’s large-scale, landscape cyanotypes on fabric link the tactile and the visual by committing the photographic process to the physical landscape. The artist works outdoors on the ground, making 1:1 indexical photographic prints during midday sunlight. The resulting images record both the topography of that plot of ground and a composition of landscape elements from that immediate location. For a series of unconventional black and white photograms the artist used objects found on neighborhood walks to build images without film or camera that transform the role of light and shadow in defining photographic information. Pearson’s videos have similar concerns but inject time, an abrupt physicality, and a heightened subjectivity that inform a relationship to the landscape that conveys a sense of wonder and humor.
“This is a rudimentary photography, made without camera or film, recording the moment, the light, and the terrain of a particular but negligible plot of ground in a vast space at high noon,” says Pearson of the cyanotypes featured in “Lay of the Land.” “It is influenced by the landscape embodied in the 1840s cyanotype photograms of Anna Atkins, and it offers a response to the grand vistas of photographers such as Ansel Adams by bringing vision back to the body and using what is within reach: rocks, dirt, open sky, and sunlight.”
Curated by Terri Phillips and Brian Pera in collaboration with Crosstown Arts
The Wish Book series is a series focusing on non-traditional approaches to film as a medium. Curators Brian Pera and Terri Phillips welcome internationally recognized artists, filmmakers, and critics to Memphis for this exciting series, which takes its name from the famed Sears Catalog and is hosted by Crosstown Arts at Crosstown Concourse, itself once a major Sears distribution center.