Did you know you were out of touch? When was the last time you stood under a
vast, open sky, and allowed yourself to be soul-stirred by the utter
possibility found in the ever-changing scene? Too many of us don’t spend enough
time outside, and when we are out bustling about, ant-like, we don’t look up,
or the view is blocked. Daniel P. Crozet is inviting you to gaze and become
lost. In a show that simply focuses on celebrating the magnificence of the
sky’s water-ghost inhabitants, the artist challenges our aloof modern ways, and
makes subject of what has been relegated to the familiar backdrop of our daily
experience, here below.
The provided artist statement speaks of the simple pleasure and purpose in
apprehending these enchanting enigmas: “I am a cloud watcher. Even if I
have never been able to distinguish a cirrus from a cumulus or a stratus,
watching clouds moving in the sky, changing shapes, appearing or disappearing
in a second, is really satisfying to me.” Scientific understanding of a
thing is not necessary for the mind to be fully engaged, and though nameless,
Crozet’s pictures delight in these misty entities’ unique personalities.
Allowing the images to speak for themselves, the artist
titled each photo “Cloud Series,” along with a number and a letter
that corresponds to the material on which the image is inkjet printed: P for
paper, C for canvas, S for silk. Each image is limited to an edition of 10
prints in each size. Texture and verse complete the pictures: the fabric
creations were provided by Jane Ellen B., and several images are accompanied by
poems by Alicia Vandevorst.
It was smart to print some of the cloud portraits on delicate and diaphanous
silk. In “#S17,” cloud images are layered, and there is an interesting
play between the solid and transparent nature of the material, and the cast
shadows of the hanging fabric, which floats and sways in the subtle breeze of
the room. These effects of the silk are rightly paired with a subject matter
that so swiftly transforms itself; the emotional loveliness of skyscapes is
heavily reliant on the interplay of shadows and scattered and reflected light.
The captivating piece with electric colors chosen for the show’s postcard is
also on silk and displayed in the gallery’s front window, appropriately
filtering the light that comes pouring through.
In several instances, Vandevorst’s verse enhances the visually musical show.
“#P41” reveals a glowing sky, with downy ribbons of fire on a royal
violet field. A few lines from the paired poem illustrate how the sky can hold
sway over the sensitive mind: “The tattered quilt unrolls/ Like the
lullabies of distant lands./ My ears are swollen/ Bowls. My eyes are straws
[…] I hang without the gravity/ of place. The circular horizon/ Bells inside
the case of me–/ Every golden pleat. […]”.
Crozet aimed skyward to create studies of the gestural air,
some of which gracefully hint at the presence of the other elements. Often the
clouds are crisp, and seem to be exactly what they are, while others are
abstracted and appear to be on fire (#C28), or reflections of water, as if a
sky-ocean (#P31), or geological strata in canyons of rock.
In many of the pictures we are able to perceive the ever-moving aspect of
the clouds, captured by Crozet’s deft attention. He has recorded the ethereal
bodies tumbling, dancing, and evaporating across our delicate earth-ceiling,
and our once-solid 2-D perception of the painted dome above falls away.
The digital distortion used in “#P22” resembles warp-speed motion,
and has the viewer rapidly traveling deep into the picture toward some
disappearing point, as though swifting off with the birds, but also speaks of
our modern pace through our lives. Emerging from the vaporous canopy at the
bottom of “#P38,” we sneak a peek, sans-airplane, of that wide open
world above and beyond the noise and rush below.
Gravity-defying bodies, coasting or resting on the uncertain back of the
wind, remind us of our own experiences of epic wonderment. In “#P35,”
fairytale clouds soar bubbling and towering, but are tempered with dark,
stringy, menacing streaks. Downy but ominous stripes dominate a section of sky
in “#P27,” and the accompanying verse describes how it feels to stand
rapt in the thrall of a thunderous spell: “In the pound of the storm/ The
bound mind succumbs/ Becomes less numb.”
While viewing the show, a line from a Robert Frost poem emerged in my
perpetually seeking mind: “I turned and looked back up at the sky / Where
we still look to ask the why / Of everything below.” Regardless of our
religious stance, it seems to be a truth that we cast our gaze skyward for
explanations, or in dread, or for inspiration. Crozet’s work borders on the
worshipful, but with the mischievous touch of a creator himself, he has crafted
and shaped his own sky world through digital and textural exploration.รก
Clouds
By Daniel P. Crozet
Through June 15
Image City Photography Gallery, 722 University Ave.
271-2540, ImageCityPhotographyGallery.com
Wednesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday noon-4 p.m.
This article appears in Jun 11-11, 2008.
