Jessica Eaton, Additive Pong, 2006
If I was anywhere near Toronto right now I would definitely check out Jessica Eaton’s current solo exhibition at Hunter and Cook.
Eaton’s recent work is completely analogue and visually perplexing. Challenging herself to make images in camera and on film that could have more easily been made using photoshop and a computer, Eaton seems to be in the process of developing a new photographic vocabulary as well as a unique way of seeing.
Jessica Eaton, 108_06, 2009
As Eaton wrote to me in an email:
“There is something about digital imaging opening up possibilities in the analogue that could not have been fathomed before – I liken it to the ways in which the invention of photography really freed painting from having to attempt to represent faithfully. Anyone invested in the practice of photography understands that even the “straightest” image is full of illusion (through optics, perspective, time, chemistry, particles, waves……).”
Having only seen Eaton’s work on a computer screen is strangely ironic and frankly quite annoying. Her photographs are really gorgeous and intellectually engaging, they practically demand to be seen in the flesh.
If you can’t see the work in person at the gallery, she has two different portfolios up on Tiny Vices. Portfolio 2 is the recent work which is on view at the gallery.
The exhibition in Toronto was recently reviewed here and it gives a pretty good insight into her work.
I love how she decided to make images that could have been made easily in photoshop, but without the use of it. It can prove all those people wrong who believe that the only way to make such beautiful and abstract photographs is through the use of photoshop or some other computer program. Film can be as abstract and interesting as any digitally altered image, but some, if not most, people seem to have forgotten that. I really do enjoy these photographs and only wish that I can someday see them in person.
I admire the challenges that Eaton took on with this project. However, is it meerly the fact that the artist took the “hard way” that is the admirable aspect? Although the use of positive and negative spaces and the relationships with the colors are quite aesthetically pleasing, why reinvent the wheel?
Is the content no more than just “look what I can do” or is she pushing the issue of the race of the digital age? Can anyone be an artist with the right tools? No, but it sure makes it easier.