Archive - June, 2011

Creative Spaces: Angela Cappetta’s Love Letter to Medusa

A photograph in the "Medusa" series (Photo by Angela Cappetta)

Photographer Angela Cappetta has a new show opening this weekend at the Medusa General Store as part of their MGS Projects series. “Medusa: A Love Letter to the Mountains” reflects on the working farm community of Medusa in Upstate New York. The hamlet is tiny–it had a population of only 376 people during the 2000 census–but this did not stop Cappetta from setting up a home and darkroom in the rural community. Cappetta’s photographs of Medusa were handprinted in her own basement darkroom, which is pictured below.

Negatives drying in Angela Cappetta's darkroom (Photo by Angela Cappetta)

 

Cappetta's basement darkroom. A Lee Friedlander poster hangs above the sink. (Photo by Angela Cappetta)

 

Legend has it that Cappetta's print flattener once belonged to Gary Winogrand (Photo by Angela Cappetta)

Cappetta’s photography has been collected by institutions like the Corcoran Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and by private collectors like Agnes Gund. Some of you may be familiar with Cappetta’s documentary and commercial work, which has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazar, and The New Yorker, but this new show is an opportunity to see another side of this versatile photographer. These contemplative images of Medusa have a real sense of place and are quite intimate for a series comprised largely of landscapes. Each photograph is a like a visual poem, capturing some small, quiet moment in the rural Upstate hamlet Cappetta calls home.

Legless deer in Medusa, NY

A Photograph from the "Medusa" series (Photo by Angela Cappetta)

The opening reception for “Medusa” takes place from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 2nd at the Medusa General Store located at 6 Red Barn Lane. For more information, please contact April Roggio at aroggio (at) nycap.rr (dot) com.

And if you can’t make it, don’t worry. You can peruse Cappetta’s photo series from the comfort of your own living room. To see more of Cappetta’s work, please visit her website.

A photograph from the "Medusa" series (Photo by Angela Cappetta)

This is the second installment in Gwarlingo’s “Creative Spaces” series. To see the first feature on MacArthur fellow Anna Schuleit, click here.

If you’re a writer, visual artist, composer, filmmaker, architect, etc. who would like to have your own desk, studio, or work area considered for “Creative Spaces,” please email quality photographs to michelle (at) gwarlingo (dot) com. Your space doesn’t have to be large, fancy, or organized. (Readers enjoy seeing all types of work spaces in varying states of disarray!) Submissions should include a bio and a link to your website. We regret that we’re unable to publish all of the submissions we receive.

While you’re here, don’t forget to check out the Gwarlingo home page, which is updated regularly. Right now, you can preview new music by Gillian Welch and PJ Harvey, see the latest Gwarlingo recommendations and reader comments, plus view Gwarlingo’s Photo of the Week.

If you like Gwarlingo, I hope you’ll consider subscribing by RSS feed or email (it’s easy, safe, and free). You can also follow Gwarlingo on Twitter and Facebook.

To leave a comment about Angela Cappetta’s work or the “Creative Spaces” series, click here and scroll to the “Comments” section at the bottom of the page.

New York City Lights

"Sign" (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

"Grand Central" (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

An office building at night in New York City

"Office Building" by Michelle Aldredge

 

Chandelier in the New York Public Library

"New York Public Library" (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

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To leave a comment about these photos click here and scroll to the “Comments” section at the bottom of the page.

Gwarlingo Visits the Tate Modern

A painting from Cy Twombly's "Bacchus, Psilax, Mainomenos" series (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

This week I paid a visit to the Tate Modern in London. The museum is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world with over 4.7 million visitors a year. Currently, the Tate has special exhibitions by Joan Miró and Taryn Simon. (The Simon exhibit is particularly interesting, but more on that in a future Gwarlingo article).

Jenny Holzer's "Blue Purple Tilt" (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

Another painting in Cy Twombly's "Bacchus, Psilax, Mainomenos" series (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

Some of my favorite highlights from the Tate Modern’s collection were Jenny Holzer’s “Blue Purple Tilt“ and Cy Twombly’s striking Bacchus, Psilax, Mainomenos series, which is comprised of three large-scale, canvases covered in whorling, red brushstrokes. Like Matisse in his later years, Twombly created this 2005 series by attaching a paintbrush to the end of a long pole. The deep vermilion color is reminiscent of both blood and wine.

"Maroon and Orange" (Seagram Mural) by Mark Rothko (Courtesy photo)

The Tate’s Rothko Room, which showcases Mark Rothko’s luminous, large-scale murals originally commissioned for The Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York, is particularly memorable and offers a welcome respite to weary museum-goers. Rothko’s soft-edged rectangles radiate deep maroon, orange, gray, and black and glow meditatively in the dimly lit gallery. I also enjoyed Cindy Sherman’s 1975 Super-8 film “Doll Clothes,” which dates back to Sherman’s art school days, as well as a collection of posters by The Guerilla Girls.

One of the many works by The Guerrilla Girls on view at the Tate Modern (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

While the gallery’s permanent collection of modern and contemporary art is excellent, what makes a visit to the Tate Modern especially memorable is the building itself. The museum is housed in the former Bankside Power Station on the south bank of the Thames River. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the original station, was also the designer of the the now-famous, red telephone boxes scattered across Britain. The massive Turbine Hall, which once housed electricity generators, stands five stories tall and has 11,155 square feet of floor space.

The height of the power station chimney at the Tate Modern is 325 feet. It was intentionally built shorter than the Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, which stands at 375 feet. (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

The architects Herzog & de Meuron wisely chose to retain the character of Scott’s original design and have successfully transformed this utilitarian building into an engaging public space. The old and the new complement each other perfectly. I was particularly struck by Herzog and de Meuron’s sensitivity to the surrounding vistas. There are numerous vantage points for visitors to enjoy. I found myself lingering in one gallery contemplating a panoramic view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The way the scene is framed through the large, rectangular window encourages visitors to consider the cathedral as a work of art, just like the Twombly and Barnett Newman paintings hanging nearby. Another balcony offered a lovely vista of the river, Millennium Bridge, pigeon-filled courtyard, and London skyline.

View of Millennium Bridge from the third level gallery

A view of St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge from a third level gallery (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge from the Tate Modern

A view of the London skyline from a balcony at the Tate Modern (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

But some of the most unique views were of the building’s own interior. Each level of the museum offered a different perspective of Turbine Hall. From the upper galleries I watched visitors move through the geometric shadows and ascend and descend the stairwell below. From this bird’s eye perspective, I had the sense that I was inside an M.C. Escher drawing. The Turbine Hall was especially striking at sunset as the light and shadows shifted minute by minute.

Looking down on a stairwell in Turbine Hall (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

A bird's eye view of Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

Turbine Hall in the late afternoon (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

 

The hall at sunset (Photo by Michelle Aldredge)

Between October and March each year, the Tate Modern uses the hall to display large commissioned pieces by contemporary artists. Louise Bourgeois was the first artist commissioned to create a special installation for the space. Since Bourgeois’s 2000 piece “I Do, I Undo, I Redo,” a number of memorable works have been installed there. Olafur Eliasson filled the space with a giant orange sun (“The Weather Project”), Rachel Whiteread cast and stacked 14,000 white boxes (“Embankment”), Doris Salcedo created a giant crack running down the center of the hall (“Shibboleth”), and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei filled the massive room with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds.

Continue Reading…

Found : Vintage Photos of Mutt and Jeff

 

Odd Couple-Found in NH

 

From the Collection of Michelle Aldredge

 

I love found photos and have been collecting them for years now. These pictures of odd couples are two of the favorites in my collection. The photographs were taken only a few years apart in 1937 and 1933 and were found in two different junk shops–one in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the other in Southern Vermont. They’re each wonderful in their own right, but they’re even better paired together.

 

Found in NH

 

Inscription on back of found photo taken in 1933

 

Do you have your own favorite found photo to share? You can email your found images to michelle (at) gwarlingo (dot) com. Want to leave a comment? Click this link and scroll to the bottom of the page.

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