Artist Blog 08/30

18/21 Architect's Brother, Photograph, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

Architect's Brother, Photography, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

Architect's Brother, Photograph, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

The ParkeHarrisons are mostly known for their photographs in the series Architect’s Brother, in which an ambiguous central character interacts with his natural environment in surprisingly unconventional and often humorous ways. While working in this series, once an idea is formed, Robert and Shana would venture out into a natural landscape such as a beach or empty field, and construct a scene with found natural elements. “Robert often ‘plays’ the main character in the scene, and Shana directs (or, in the former dance student’s words, ‘choreographs’) his movements and photographs the scene.” The end results are then collaged with elements of other pieces to create a final product.

My photographs tell stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration within landscapes scarred by technology and over-use…. [I] strive to metaphorically and poetically link laborious actions, idiosyncratic rituals and strangely crude machines into tales about our modern experience.

--Robert ParkeHarrison

Although the ParkeHarrisons mainly work in photography, they do consider themselves painters, which is evident in this series. There is a fine expressionistic quality in their work that alludes to the artists’ hand. In this series, there are more traditional film and darkroom manipulation techniques such as blurring the lens to create a soft focus effect, or a jolt to the tripod or camera to suggest movement. There is a very fine grain to all of their work, as well as a light vignette that was added during post-processing in a darkroom. It’s also intriguing to consider Shana’s choreography on its own as a form of painting.

10/28 Counterpoint, Photograph, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

17/28 Counterpoint, Photograph, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

3/13 Grey Dawn, Photograph, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

In more recent series-entitled Gray Dawn and Counterpoint- slightly different subject matter coincides with the same style and connection with nature. A main character (played by Robert) remains. However, these series incorporate aspects of nature with larger, more solid elements such as concrete, glass, and metal. The majority of the images are photographed in stark ambiguous environments with cold, empty atmospheres. Interspersed with those images are pieces that relate back to the ParkeHarrisons’ shooting in, and interacting with, natural environments. However, the atmosphere of the images (although they are much more colorful than images from Architect’s Brother) suggest static and tension.

Their use of light and motion in these series helps to involve the viewer more so by emphasizing and certain aspects of the image so the viewer really has to spend time analyzing the subject matter. Yet, even with all these harsh man-made objects, I find Gray Dawn to be much less industrial than their work in The Architect’s Brother. Perhaps because there is a lack of workmanship in the subject matter, unlike the obviously man-made contraptions created by the main character in Architect’s Brother.

The ParkeHarrisons both have their Masters in Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. Robert is now an Associate Professor of Studio Art Photography at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester Massachusetts. Their work has been displayed in 18 solo exhibitions and over 30 group exhibitions. Their work is also found in over 20 collections including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian. Their Book, Architect’s Brother, was named one of the “Ten Best Photography Books of the Year” of 2000 by the New York Times.

Parkeharrison Wikipedia

Parkeharrison Website

Holy Cross: Portrait of the Artists

Idea Blog for 08/27

Forgetting I, 20x39", Digital Photo, Kerry McDonnell, 04/2008

I began photographing my siblings upon my parent’s separation as a way of coping with the situation. I found that photographing and participating with my siblings throwing paper planes was a release for me as well as for them. I saw those pictures as a way of letting go of stress and anxiety; to realize everything will sort itself out if you let it.

I continued with this idea into our Concepts class. I wanted to share with everyone my anxieties about the effects of the divorce on my siblings and to prove the emotional release that can be had by throwing a paper plane. However, it progressed into something completely different. With the absence of my father, I ended up photographing the new “family identity” and what each of our responsibilities and relationships with one another was like, integrated within the suffocating atmosphere of my home of 20 years.

Untitled I & II, Digital Photograph, Kerry McDonnell, 12/2008

Ultimately, my final concept was the juxtaposition of the new family identity and the general absence of my father, with the old family identity. I ended up taking pictures of my family and things in my house, printing them on 5x7s, and scattering them around areas of/near my home and taking a picture of that scene. The areas that I scattered the 5x7s are places that my siblings and I used to play in when we were younger. I had 3 different locations for the 2^nd part of my project, the pictures from which I made large, mounted prints.

The absence of my father in those images was obvious. However, with the final presentation, along with my large prints, I decided to include a photo album of the 5x7s that sat on top of a side table that my dad made for me. I wanted the final presentation to reinforce my father’s separation from us by only having the side table serve as a metaphor for the person that should still be a part of my family.

Last semester I continued my work with my siblings for my Locations final, but instead of focusing on family issues and my siblings’ responses, I wanted these to be more light-hearted and hopeful. I wanted to show the other side of my sibling’s personalities. Like other children, my brother and sister and I would make forts and play dress-up with anything we had at hand. For this assignment, I photographed Michael and Hayley taking on roles that they would as children. I had them dress up in available clothing, sheets, costumes, etc., as well as interact with available props. I wanted to capture a childish innocence in the two of them that is seldom seen around home nowadays.

An Orange and A Blue (3), Series, Digital Photograph, Kerry McDonnell, 04/2009

So, for the past year and a half I have been focusing on my parents’ divorce and its effect on my siblings. I have documented them as hopeful, nostalgic, as well as their true, uninhibited selves. I’ve reached the point where I feel like this subject matter has been exhausted. It’s time to stop ignoring the inevitable. For the next year I plan to turn my focus onto how my parents’ relationship is affecting me.

The lack of communication between my parents and how openly and immaturely they’re handling the divorce has severely taken its toll on me. My mother and father both are not ones to express their thoughts and emotions subtly. Their sarcastic and snide remarks about each other and the family are what I’ve had to endure for the past 2 years. However, over this summer it has become undeniably intrusive. Unlike my parents, I am not one to convey my emotions and thoughts openly. I’ve had to stifle too many outbursts for the sake of sparing myself, my siblings and my parents from more embarrassment and distress to the point where I have become incessantly anxious, compulsive, paranoid, and irritable.

For this project I plan to use moths as a metaphor for these frantic, fluttering things I continuously have to keep in check. The message I hope to communicate is that these behaviors are both internal and external. They overwhelm me and escape into my surroundings and affect my friends, family and my general perception.

I have recently learned that my dad has OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder), the signs of which are the behaviors I’ve listed above. In turn, the moths will serve as my fear of becoming like my father as well as a constant reminder of him. Ultimately, I will use this project as a way of defeating these sudden behaviors as well as to overcome my fear of becoming like my dad.