Curator: Amanda Donnan
Artist: Corey Escoto
Corey Escoto: Sleight of Hand
The artworks Corey Escoto has created for this exhibition include, and expand upon, his unique multi-exposure “experimental Polaroids,” which are produced with a modified large-format camera and hand-cut light-blocking stencils covering the light sensitive film surface. The artist uses Fuji Color FP-100c45 instant film (discontinued in 2012), but subverts the very instantaneity of his medium, “hacking” the automated photographic process to introduce the deeply human, time-intensive element of handcraftsmanship. Composing illusionistic geometric forms from fragmented impressions of various places and objects—shot from life or from his computer screen—he folds many moments into one image and flattens reality into pattern, texture, and shade.
A related group of sculptures “reverse-engineer” the polaroids, bringing the forms imagined therein into three dimensions and inverting the sensibility of the images on which they are based. While the photographs evoke depth, the sculptures emphasize surface, incorporating “faux” materials that mimic the texture of marble, wood, and fabric. The sculptures are arranged against a large painted backdrop modeled on seamless green screen backgrounds, which are used by special effects artists to superimpose one image onto another. Painted to recall the Photoshop color gradients that often appear in his photographs, this “set piece,” as Escoto calls it, interrupts the spatial logic of the gallery space and indicates artifice—a precarious, manufactured sense of reality.
Events
Corey Escoto: Sleight of Hand Opening and Artist Talk
About Carnegie Museum of Art
Today, this museum is one of the most dynamic major art institutions in America. The CMOA's collection of more than 35,000 objects features a broad spectrum of visual arts, including painting and sculpture; prints and drawings; photographs; architectural casts, renderings, and models; decorative arts and design; and film, video, and digital imagery.
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