Queercraft Exhibition

In conjunction with the College Art Association's Annual Meeting in 2009, the CAA Queer Caucus of Art organized an exhibition at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center's Advocate and Gochis Galleries. It was a group exhibition that ran from January 22 to February 27, and it was curated by Joon Oluchi Lee, assistant professor of gender studies and English at the Rhode Island School of Design. He chose my color photogram diptych Midas in Reverse to be included in the show, and one half of the work appeared on the show's postcard, as you can see below.

Midas in Reverse

C-print photograms of Easter grass
20 x 30 inches each
2006

The title of the work refers to a 1967 song by the Hollies called "King Midas in Reverse." I indulged in a little fantasy here, imagining "the golden touch" transformed into rendering things into plastic Easter grass--albeit in the opulent, psychedelic-colored mode of the photogram. Easter grass definitely makes a better photogram than gold would, and this reversal of values is important to me. Here is the statement I wrote for my entries for the exhibit:

"Within the aesthetic of Camp, the values of logic, restraint, and authenticity are highly suspect. Gilding the lily is a must, more is more, and fake is usually better than the real thing. Working with craft materials like patterned fabric, Easter grass, pompoms, and beads, I make photographs and photograms (cameraless photographs) that draw on Camp’s ability to regard the world in other terms and posit alternate uses and merits to objects and ideas. Grapes take on the import of jewels; Easter grass stands in for macho, abstract expressionist paint marks; and vermicelli stars (one of Jean Cocteau’s favorite things) show up to interrupt a sober pastoral. Queerness—a definite attribute of Camp— is manifest in the unlikely combinations of objects and strange substitutions in these images."

Rochester Contemporary Members' Exhibition

For the Rochester Contemporary Art Center's Annual Members' Exhibition in 2008, I submitted a work called Born to Be Loved. It consists of three circular color photograms of fabrics that feature patterns of objects that might be dear to a pre-teen girl: brightly-colored, Victorian-style, lace-up boots; purses and handbags floating in space; and paperdolls with matching clothes. I covered the photograms' frames in pompoms, pinning them in place. For the RoCo show, I also supplied a metallic, green paper to serve as wallpaper behind the photograms. The exhibition took place from December 5, 2008 to January 18, 2009. Below are images of the work in the exhibition space.

Born to Be Loved
C-print photograms of fabric with pompom-covered foam frames
10 inches in diameter each
2008

The title of this work comes from reggae song by The Maytones from 1972.

Acid Love Letter

From December 3 through 17, 2008, I participated in a six-person group exhibition called "Acid Love Letter: The Visual and Cultural Studies Holiday Show." The exhibit was held at the Harnett Gallery--a triangular space designed by I.M. Pei--at the University of Rochester's Wilson Commons. The purpose of the exhibit was to highlight the art practices of doctoral students in the Visual and Cultural Studies Program at the University of Rochester. Six of these students were involved in the exhibit: Bo Zheng, Dinah Holtzman, Lucy Mulroney, Nicola Mann, myself, and Victoria Pass. I designed the postcard for the exhibit using photographs of each student wearing red wax lips.




I created an installation for the corner of the triangular gallery. It was called Space is the Place and featured two 30 x 40 inch C-print photograms of plastic and glass plates, platters, and bowls, blue craft paper decorated with stickers, Easter grass, side tables, vases with fake flowers, and above all of this hung lit paper lanterns in various colors.







The stickers I adhered to the craft paper were white notebook paper reinforcers as well as neon circles used for garage sale pricing. I placed them in a regular, wallpaper-like pattern on the paper.


A view from the windows above the gallery, looking down into the corner installation.


A view from inside the installation, looking up.



The second-floor hallway above the gallery has windows looking into the corner space.





Here are the two 30 x 40 inch C-print photograms of plastic and glass plates, platters, and bowls featured in Space is the Place. This title is a reference to a song by Sun Ra and his Archestra.

Ten X Ten Exhibition

Nur Einmal Kommt Die Liebe
Color photograms of fabric in circular foam frames covered in yarn
10 inches in diameter each
2008

I created this piece for a group exhibition called "Ten X Ten" at the new Center Gallery in Wichita, Kansas. The gallery focuses exclusively on contemporary photography and is managed by Linda Robinson, Assistant Professor of Photography at Wichita State University. For more information about the show and the gallery, visit http://www.centergalleryonline.com.

For these photograms of fabric, I decided to make custom frames that are decorative and match the images but also draw attention to themselves and compete with or even overwhelm the photograms.

Installation of "Kiss and Make Up" Exhibition

Outside the Art & Music Library Gallery

Cut-out felt lettering



(When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas
Oval C-print photograms in ornate black plastic frames
15 x 19 inches each
2008



Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
Square C-print photograms of plastic craft string in white wooden frames
15 x 15 inches each
2008



Blame It On My Youth
Oval C-print photograms in black wooden frames
9.5 x 14.5 inches each
2008



View from inside the gallery--Installation of Marine Blue Astroturf on the floor



Matching gold tinsel trees on tripod decorator tables with rose red felt table covers



Lipstick kisses on the gallery windows (my own lips and 4 shades of lipstick)



View from inside the gallery door--the orange wallpaper is homemade
with a lipstick kiss pattern



Artist's statement on a gold tinsel garland-framed door



Image #1 from (When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas

Detail of #1

C-print photogram of polka dot chiffon fabric with plastic doves,
paperclips, and sequin flowers

Image #2 from (When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas
C-print photogram of polka dot tissue paper with safety pins,
sequin circles, and sequin flowers

Image #3 from (When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas

Detail of #3
C-print photogram of polka dot tissue paper with straight pins,
sequin butterflies, and sequin stars



Image #4 from (When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas



Detail of #4
C-print photogram of polka dot tissue paper with
architectural model human figures and sequin flowers



Image #5 from (When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas



Detail of #5
C-print photogram of polka dot cotton fabric with
jacks, buttons, and sequin birds



Close-Up of Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars



Detail of one image from Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
C-print photograms of plastic craft string
(the plastic string that you use to make bracelets and keychains,
known in France and Germany as "Scooby-doo")



First three images from Blame It On My Youth



Detail of Image #1 from Blame It On My Youth
C-print photogram of Cabbage Patch Doll fabric



Detail of Image #2 from Blame It On My Youth
C-print photogram of bird and flower patterned fabric



Detail of Image #3 from Blame It On My Youth
C-print photogram of Barbie bathroom fabric



Last four images from Blame It On My Youth



Detail of Image #4 from Blame It On My Youth
C-print photogram of stylish women walking fabric



Detail of Image #6 from Blame It On My Youth
C-print photogram of geese patterned fabric



Detail of Image #7 from Blame It On My Youth
C-print photogram of tennis shoe patterned fabric

Kiss and Make Up Exhibition, Oct. 7-31, 2008

(When We Are Dancing) I Get Ideas (detail)

Color photogram of polka dot tissue paper

14 x 18 inches

2008

Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (detail)

Color photogram of plastic craft string

15 x 15 inches

2008

I'm having my first solo exhibition in 2 years at the University of Rochester's Art and Music Library Gallery, Oct. 7-31. If you cannot make it to Rochester in October, I will also be posting images of the exhibition online once it's up. Here is the press release I've written for the show:

WHAT: "Kiss and Make Up” is an exhibition by Genevieve Waller that includes color photograms (cameraless photographs) and decorative installations in the spirit of “Camp”—an aesthetic where more is more and gilding the lily is a must.

WHEN & WHERE: October 7-31, 2008 in the Gallery at the Art & Music Library on the ground floor of Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester's River Campus. The opening reception takes place on Thursday, October 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.

DETAILS: “Photograms” are photographs made without the use of a camera or film. They are created by placing objects on photographic paper, exposing the ensemble to light, and processing the paper in photographic chemistry. The resulting images are one of a kind, they have a one-to-one ratio to the original objects used, and they resemble silhouettes or X-rays with inverted tones. Some of the first photographs produced in the 19^th century were actually these cameraless images, and artists have continued to make photograms ever since.

Using color photo paper and a variety of craft materials, Genevieve Waller makes color photograms in which not only the values are reversed—black becomes white and white becomes black—but also colors. The images of reality generated have the high detail of the photographic, yet their mixed-up, vibrant colors paint strange versions of the recognizable. Arrangements of plastic string turn into Abstract Expressionist compositions of line and color floating in the black of outer space; patterned fabric and tissue paper become dizzying Op Art compositions; and tiny, everyday objects take on the import of a Rosetta-Stone text, affirming their presence but speaking in code.

Accompanying Genevieve’s photograms is an installation of decorative items that echo the objects that appear in the images. She treats the exhibition as an interior design opportunity by adding floor and wall treatments, furniture, and accents—but in a do-it- yourself, Dollar Store, automatic glamour style. Overall, the photograms and the installation are a study in “Camp”, looking into the aesthetic which Susan Sontag described as "the love of the exaggerated, the 'off,' of things-being-what-they-are-not" (Notes on ‘Camp’, 1964).

Photograms of Dishes, Lamps, and Ribbons

Sweet Mystery of Life At Last I’ve Found You!
C-print photograms
15 x 15 inches each
2005

Lonely House

Silver gelatin photograms processed in color chemistry
20 x 48 inches each
2005

How Did He Look?

C-print photogram
18 x 20 inches
2005

Larmes toxiques
Cut C-print photograms and table
48 inches in diameter
2005

These are photograms from an on-going series using everyday objects, household items, and craft supplies as image-making materials and subject matter. Sweet Mystery of Life at Last I’ve Found You! and Larmes toxiques are two examples of works featuring dessert plates, serving platters, and various other cut-glass and plastic dishes. I have been amassing a collection of photogram-able dishes for the past few years, and I have made various stand-alone and multi-part images with them. In Sweet Mystery, I made photograms of single plates and bowls, placing each in the center of a square sheet of photo paper when I made the exposure, and then I organized the resulting images in a tidy grid. The excessive geometry of circles within squares caught in a grid may be orderly to a fault, or a vision of a perfect world. I also have a version of this piece that is made up of 9 photograms instead of 4 (the grid is perhaps more oppressive or impressive with more components).

Larmes toxiques is a bit more free form, but still has aspirations to perfect symmetry. I made multiple photograms of each dish for this piece—going against the general photogram rule of the singular image, as opposed to camera-based or digital photography’s infinite reproducibility. Then I cut out the multiple images of dishes from their black paper grounds and arranged them on a table—the rightful place for dishes. But here, the dimensional, functional plates, bowls, and platter have been replaced with paper versions of the originals, and the colors of the real dishes have been reversed to their psychedelic complements.

Lonely House is the first of a series of images I’ve made by processing resin-coated silver gelatin photo paper in color chemistry. The beige ground on which the white silhouettes float would be black if I had processed the paper correctly, or used color photo paper, but with this cross-processing you get a more subtle effect. In this piece, I made photograms of various lamps—putting the same shade on each lamp—then I put the images together in a police line-up of sorts. By reducing the lamps down to their silhouettes, their anthropomorphic quality is more pronounced, the various styles they reference—such as Neo-Classicism or some version of Orientalism—are still visible, and you can study their careful proportions, which are surprisingly sophisticated.

How Did He Look? is the first color image I made in a series of black and white photograms of arrangements of ribbon. In the silver gelatin images, I put ribbons together to create stripe designs with variation in width, style, and value on a gray-scale. Because the ribbons are quite translucent, when I switched to using color the resulting images came out mostly in pastels, for bold color photograms can only be made with translucent objects that are highly-saturated in color. The white ribbon in the center of this image is opaque and red in real life; it helps create a bolder value in the arrangement. In some ways, my photograms of ribbons seem somewhat analogous to Kenneth Noland’s stripe paintings from 1960s and 70s, but made with craft supplies rather than virilely-applied paint. Incidentally, I’m planning a series of photograms as an homage to Post-Painterly Abstraction, made in a similar vein.