02 john w ford nitrianska galeria by John W. Ford

JOHN W. FORD

OBLIQUE PERSPECTIVES: A SYSTEM FOR EYES, HALF CLOSED

Nitra, Slovakia / 2013

A SYSTEM FOR EYES, HALF CLOSED With opportunities to work in unfamiliar settings, I have often taken clues from the surrounding location, abandoned architectural spaces , and discarded materials found within that context. In the past, I collected, examined, and rearranged objects I found on site, building a type of reliquary to house these bits and pieces, this evidence of the place, its past and present inhabitants, and the effects of natural forces upon the whole. Seeking to evolve the manner by which I interface and react to new and unfamiliar contexts, I decided to take a different material or media approach to my work in Nitra, Slovakia. I collected, but less the actual material of the location, rather the visual impressions and details of the city, such that they could become the evidence of my experience, the material that would eventually become my exhibit in six rooms of the Bunker Gallery. What I could not have predicted was the degree to which the space of the gallery itself would effect the nature of the final project. Hoping the viewers might see their city in a new way, I found myself seeing the gallery in new ways as well, as much a conceptual and visual resource as the collected photographic images of Nitra. Therefore, the final installation in Bunker Gallery becomes an homage to Nitra, but also to the residual history of the Bunker itself (a former Cold War bomb shelter), and also the experimental artists who had worked in the spaces prior to my arrival. An artist-made mouse hole became the most curious and ironic aspect of past activity in the gallery, and an image of the hole is repeated in photographic form throughout the gallery. By a thorough cleaning of the gallery, a residue of past construction in the floor became apparent in the gallery for the first time in years. All the subtle (and not so subtle) photographic details are meant to exercise the eye of the viewer , such that the audience must look very carefully to see what the artist has installed in the walls. Then the viewer begins to be confused by existing or natural blemishes in the floors and walls, second-guessing whether or not what is seen is unintentional or is it the result of the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hand. Upon leaving the gallery, the viewer begins to look more closely at the world around them, and a different level of awareness begins to take hold. This is the nature of the project, and the nature of art, to heighten awareness, to see with eyes half closed, the inadvertent glance somehow serving to see as well as the focused gaze. (It was a challenge to document this exhibit adequately. In several instances of the documentation, I repeat the image a second time but with red dots to indicate the subtle insertions of photographic images, in case it has not been apparent what aspect is artist affected.)

A SYSTEM FOR EYES, HALF CLOSED, 2013; Mixed-media, site-specific installation using photographic images, glue, plaster, and wall paint