I clicked immediately with the work of photographer and digital media artist Kirkman Amyx, who contributes intriguing work to the 2012 Artist Invitational at the Conley Art Gallery at Fresno State. That's why I devoted my Sunday column to his art.
Amyx tackles the themes of repetition and time through his photographs. In his work "Basic Cable," he tackles a medium that is a central repetitive component in many people's lives: television. His work becomes a commentary on the ramifications of nonstop media. From my column:
Using the 69 basic cable channels available in the Bay Area on Comcast, Amyx digitally captured an image of each channel at one-minute intervals for an entire week. He ended up with 7,200 images per channel, for a total of almost half a million. The artist then overlaid visual data from each day so that each moment is composited with the same moment from the other days.
Amyx offers two versions of the results of his project. One is a close-up comparison of two channels: the local PBS and FOX affiliates. The image above is a detail from the Fox station. In each composited cell, you can make out individual faces and actions.
Here's a view of the PBS and Fox components from the showside-by-side comparison:
From my column:
The blown-up details in "Basic Cable" hit close to home. Think of the hours each day that many (most!) of us position ourselves in front of a horizontal box or screen and binge on a flurry of images. As each of those images unfold on TV, we think of them as distinct or unique -- a crisp and limitless window to the world. Yet taken in a cumulative view, they morph into a blurred, fuzzy amalgamation that somehow seems so, well, limited.
Can you imagine a similar compilation of overlaid images taken over time of people on their couches watching TV? Over a lengthy period, their well-defined forms staking out various positions on favorite furniture would likewise blur into hazy, indistinct blobs.
The other version of "Basic Cable" is more of a "bigger picture" view. When showing his results from all 69 channels side by side, the details are so small that you lose any sense of individual form and are left more with color:
When I attended Amyx's artist lecture last week at Fresno State, he talked about another project that I thought was really strong as well. Even though it isn't at the Fresno State show, you can see it and read about it at his website. The project is titled "3-Views," and he did it by mounting a special camera in his backyard to take photos every 15 minutes of the same view of a poplar tree for an entire year. Each day yielded a tiny strip of photos that are stacked on top of each other, all captured in an image 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide:
Here's a detail:
From Amyx's website:
Built from over 35,000 separate photos, the form of each panel visualizes the rhythm of nature, the structures and patterns of changing light and weather, and offers a platform for the contemplation on humanities own relationship to change and temporality.
There's a lot to think about in terms of "3-Views." The hourglass shape resulting from the shifting season is organic in feel, as if capturing the rhythms of life. Darkness is a part of our lives along with the light, even though we try hard to forget with such "innovations" as 24-hour cable TV. Amyx's two projects together gave me much to muse about.
His work at the Conley Gallery, which is featured alongside paintings by Richard Bruland, ceramics by Roger Lee and scrolled paper by Hadieh Shafie), continues through Feb. 10. Details here.
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