A Pause, to Contemplate the Light. : : Recording Space

A Pause, to Contemplate the Light. : : Recording Space

 Curated by Jessica Snow

Artists:

Elizabeth Bernstein

Jordan Jurich Weston

Laura Plageman

Josh Smith

  

Exhibition Dates: Feb 2-25, 2018
Opening Reception: Feb 2, Friday, 6-10 pm
(Free & open to the public)
Address:
3standardstoppage gallery,
444 Union St, San Francisco, CA 94133

 

"It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality."

 -- Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

The artists I’ve chosen for ‘A Pause, to Contemplate the Light. :: Recording Space’ draw forth in their respective series a tension between the seen and the unseen. The subject matter isn’t definable in a traditional sense, and the elusiveness of the narrative is what holds the viewer’s fascination. Domestic space is inhabited but devoid (mostly) of people.. their presence is suggested rather than depicted. These photos document lives lived as if seen from the periphery or the corner of the eye. A wrinkled imprint on the couch, a forgotten toy in the yard, light dabbling the curtain. Such images awaken our own childhood memories, banked in the deepest storehouse of the mind. 

Whether the photos contain the narrative or merely suggest it, the experience of looking brings about daydreams, forming, dissipating, forming again. These photographs are suggestive of a state in-between -- lived spaces in which a feeling seems to be left over from a previous state.. we can only guess what happened before, and what will transpire there in the future. An ever-present questioning is contained within.. these are lived spaces, sometimes urban, but not necessarily. The photos cohere in that they suggest longings for completion, for a summing up of how we might live more fully in the world.  

-- Jessica Snow, Curator