What: Design Lab: Photographs by David Allee and SubUrban: Sarah Hobbs’ installation photographs When: Allee thru Jan. 2, and Hobbs thru April 3, 2005 (Hobbs will give a gallery talk March 17, at 6:30 p.m.) Where: Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive (call 525-6101 or visit knoxart.org for info.

Photography shows address aesthetic issues

by Heather Joyner Spica

There’s a way to understand and define photography based on how it’s being used and what it’s attempting to communicate—and how those two things do or do not correspond. Even if you’re no purist when it comes to what constitutes fine-art photography, even if your attitude is that anything done with the medium is legitimate, distinctions can still be made. Whereas non-photographic art is a matter of beauty created, photographic aesthetics come from beauty (or something else) found. And choices made with a camera, like any related to artistic concerns, reflect intentions promoting a particular aesthetic. The aesthetic sensibilities of cityscape photographer David S. Allee (the KMA’s present Design Lab exhibitor) and those associated with Sarah Hobbs (the SubUrban artist whose show opens Dec. 17) are worlds apart, and each person produces images that function very differently.

Speaking of aesthetics, what do we mean by that word, anyhow? “Aisthetikos,” the Greek origin of the term, refers to sense perception. But our definition of aesthetics has evolved to include notions of essential beauty and the level of “taste” that determines those notions. Given that there’s no judgment involved and no “beauty” to mistrust, the original meaning is certainly more serviceable; aesthetics as a measure rather than a source of beauty makes more sense—especially if the aesthetics in question are “anaesthetic” or without feeling.

Which brings me to Allee’s 13 large Chromogenic prints. His images are of generally deserted urban locales like stadiums and auditorium lobbies (for the most part located in his native New York), and they presumably examine how the individual fits into an impersonal and artificial environment. Like the Taoist principle that a doorway’s presence is defined by an absence of wall (roughly put), the insignificance of that which is personal within vast public spaces makes us more aware of an individuality we hold dear. Allee’s photographs cannot help but be about the places pictured, but—as evidence of the photographer’s existence and how he chooses to see—they are just as much about him. And once we look at them, they become about us, too.

In Allee’s “Unisphere Above (Flushing Meadows, NY),” massive steel girders almost glow against a blue night sky. According to Metropolis Magazine writer Peter Hall, “The intrusive otherworldly effect of artificial light on man-made environments is the theme of Allee’s ongoing ‘White Nights’ series....using [a large-format Linhof Technikardan camera and] shutter speeds of two to three minutes, Allee subjects his film to the kind of intense light that turns night into an unnatural day, producing images that seem to capture a state between times and seasons.” However, one could argue that Allee’s theme is the otherworldly character of the environments themselves, and that artificial light best evokes that character. Furthermore, because photographs present moments made permanent, they are intrinsically outside of time, in which case Allee’s work is effective but unexceptional.

Hall misses the target with some observations about Allee’s photography, but he makes some interesting points, saying, “The appeal of Allee’s work is its ability to draw our attention to the formal qualities of artificial light—an illumination that is at once magical and ghastly...the excess of light is something we rarely notice. It seems refreshingly resourceful, then, that Allee repurposes this wasted light for his photographs, reminding us at the same time of its existence.”

One question remains: Are photographs expressing alienation alienating? How are we affected by images of the places Allee chooses? Personally, I’m drawn to photographs like “Telefonica Tower (Santiago, Chile)” in which there’s a specific human presence beyond that of the photographer. Seeing a woman standing alone at the edge of what appears to be a helicopter landing pad atop a building surrounded by other buildings provides a context linking the camera’s perspective to an observer within the scene, extending the image’s meaning.

Hobbs’ color photographs, many as large as 4 x 5 feet in size, serve to document her installations. As such, they are the opposite of Allee’s images: straightforward records of things personal versus one person’s take on impersonal surroundings. Based in Atlanta, Hobbs creates scenarios that she ends up photographing, presenting what the KMA calls “images of psychological states of mind....[that] examine how common emotions such as indecisiveness and perfectionism might visually and physically manifest themselves.” In her piece “untitled (perfectionist),” Hobbs presents a desk in a workspace brimming with the crumpled paper of discarded beginnings.

Considering how easily installed Hobbs’ installations would be—not to mention that the point of an installation is participation rather than representation—one wonders why she exhibits photographs of them. The environment she creates in “untitled (obsessiveness),” with Hershey bar wrappers piled upon a drop cloth beside chocolate covered walls, is also a bit cute. Looking ahead, I bet some people will find Hobbs’ ideas “2 cute 2 B toler-8-ed,” if not based too much on “one-liners.” We’ll find out when her show goes up in two weeks.

December 9, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 50 © 2004 Metro Pulse