JEFFREY BLONDES 9h 10m 11s
17 DECEMBER — 31 JANUARY 2016
JEFFREY BLONDES 9h 10m 11s PRINT EDITIONS AND TIME-BASED HD FILMS
62 SOUTH GLENWOOD STREET JACKSON HOLE WY 83001 TEL 307 733 0555 TAYLOEPIGGOTTGALLERY.COM
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PRINT EDITIONS
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Field Oak, 52 Weeks x 60 Minutes, ed. 4/7, 2008 Digital Pigment Print on 315g Rag (Bergger Fine Art Paper) 85 x 55 inches
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Summer Solstice, 24 hours x 60 minutes, ed. 2/7, 2008 Digital Pigment Print on 315g Rag (Bergger Fine Art Paper) 39 ½ x 55 inches, pages 6-7 (detail above)
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TdeF, 24 hours x 60 minutes, ed. 3/7, 2015 Digital Pigment Print on 315g Rag (Bergger Fine Art Paper) 39 ½ x 55 inches, pages 10-11 (detail above)
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Long Island West - 12h 23m : 25 x 30 Minutes ed. 1/7, 2010 Digital Pigment Print on 315g Rag (Bergger Fine Art Paper) 41 x 27 ½ inches (detail above)
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Lunar Perigee, 9hr10m11s : 18 x 30 minutes, ed. 3/7, 2009 Digital Pigment Print on 315g Rag (Bergger Fine Art Paper) 29 ½ x 27 1/5 inches (detail above)
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TIME-BASED HD FILMS
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Lunar Perigee, edition 3/7, 2009 Real time. High definition (HDV 1080i) 09h10m11s hour loop The film begins January 11, 2009 at sunrise over a snowy field in Touraine, France and culminates with sunset as the Full Moon rises above the horizon. Lunar Perigee is the Moon at its closest to earth. The Moon's orbit being elliptical, Lunar Apogee occurs when it is furthest. At Perigee, the Moon appears 14% larger and 30% brighter than when it is Apogee. It is rare for the Moon to be simultaneously Full and Perigee, an irregular occurrence happening usually only once or twice a year. In 2009 it was uniquely the 24 hour period between January 10th and 11th (thus the numerical significance of the film's length: 09h10m11s). Embarking on recordings of natural phenomena must be pursued knowing there is no guarantee the event will occur under clear skies. When it does, one is rewarded for optimism and perseverance by experiencing, then sharing the poetic moment captured in this film.
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Winter Solstice, edition 3/7, 2008 Real time. High definition (HDV 1080i), 24 hour loop 200 kms above the Arctic Circle. Tornehamn, Sweden. 21-27 December, 2007, a very rare conjunction of the winter solstice and the full moon, which lights what would normally be a virtually black landscape. In Sweden this is called the ‘Philosopher’s Moon’.
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TdeF S54º W56º, edition 3/7, 2013 Real time. High definition (HDV 1080i) 24 hour loop Filmed at the South-Eastern tip of Argentinian Tierra del Fuego. The 360 degree cycle documents a graveyard of trees, felled or left standing virtually dead after being attacked by beavers. This non native species introduced 80 years ago has multiplied from a colony of 50 to a current population estimated to number over 200,000. With no natural predators on the island to regulate the population, they are ‘eating themselves out of house and home’. When every tree is decimated, with no foliage left to eat, they will eventually die out, or swim the Straights of Magellan up to mainland Patagonia (which some observers have already documented). It is poignant to note that this is occurring in the very place where Darwin explored with Captain Fitzroy on the Beagle during the 1830’s, while developing what was at the time his controversial theory of natural selection.
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Solstice Equinox, edition 4/7, 2008 Real time. High definition (HDV 1080i) 48h28m18s loop Filmed at the four solar points of the year: Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year, 16 hours and some); Autumn Equinox (the 12 hour day, the point when the sun is equidistant between the solstices); Winter Solstice (the shortest day of the year, 8 hours and some); Spring Equinox (12 hour day, the point when the sun is equidistant between the solstices as the northern hemisphere rotates back towards the summer hours).
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Etang de Pezières III : 52 Hour Film, ed 3/7, 2015 Real time. High definition (HDV 1080i) 52 hour loop Etang de Pezières, the feeder lake to a 12th edifice, la Chartreuse de Liget, a monastery founded by Henry Plantagenet in atonement for the murder of Thomas Becket. Time is still here, a chapel stands not far away in the woods. It is a place that resonates timelessness/stillness as well as the cyclical and constant progression of man through history. The skeletal trees, a spider’s web, ever-swaying but rooted and never-moving, remain fixed, staring at the water, witness to the past. Fifty-two one hour segments. Filmed once a week over the course of one year.
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JEFFREY BLONDES Jeffrey Blondes creates long format, high-definition videos that explore the temporality of nature. Over the course of a day, or up to a year, Blondes records the subtlety of the natural world—presenting viewers with isolated rural environments filmed from a deliberately controlled point of view intended to challenge the insufficiency of habitual perception. The viewer is urged to align observation with the tempo of nature—a pace rarely experienced in contemporary urban environments. Initially trained in photography, Blondes began exploring the tradition of plein aire painting after moving to France for the second time in the late 1980s. His attraction to painting outside in all weather afforded him the opportunity to record finite temporal experiences. He also made monotypes in what he describes as his “mobile studio”—a converted Citroen truck equipped with a press that allowed him to navigate his surroundings and print on site. Analogous to avant-garde composer John Cage, Blondes embraces the indeterminism and sensuality of nature. A self-proclaimed “accidental Buddhist,” Blondes’ artistic practice is one of endurance; a serial process of “standing and staring.” The products of his excursions into the natural world act as containers of his experience and time spent. The scheduling and location of filming is frequently planned to coincide with extraordinary planetary cycles or seasonal transitions, often taking place in extreme latitudes, altitudes, or destinations where natural phenomena are particularly concentrated. After determining how he wishes to frame an event or capture an environment with his cameras—the artist disavows his artistic authority, allowing nature to unfold onto the frame. What can at first appear as simple imagery reveals subtle complexity over a prolonged encounter with the work. Blondes purposefully mutes sound in his videos, denying the viewer a total sensory experience and encouraging them to engage with more intense focus. His work is found in many public and private collections throughout the world, in particular: Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris France, Domaine de Chaumont sur Loire France, Guy’s Hospital London England, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul Turkey.
THIS CATALOGUE COMPLEMENTS THE EXHIBITION AT TAYLOE PIGGOTT GALLERY FEATURING JEFFREY BLONDES 9h10m11s. © TAYLOE PIGGOTT GALLERY / JEFFREY BLONDES
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62 SOUTH GLENWOOD STREET JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING TEL 307 733 0555 TAYLOEPIGGOTTGALLERY.COM