JUROR STATEMENT — Michael Stickrod

It was an honor reviewing submissions for ImageOHIO10. I chose examples of video and photography that struck me as representative of the current state of contemporary art. At first I found it challenging being removed from the work itself. I was looking at the digital entries on my laptop and trying to imagine each piece in the actual dimensions provided by the artist. I also felt limited by being unaware of how it was to be displayed. For instance, was it cropped by an unwarranted matte or is there a glossy finish on a photograph? This way of approaching submissions for schools and art exhibitions has been going on for years as photographic reproduction allowed slide entries to be viewed in a room on a large screen. All entries were projected on a screen or wall of a similar dimension, but now we can view each submission in many different sizes, having the capability to enlarge and shrink images to a thumbnail size at our fingertips. We can use a projector or just stare at it on a laptop. This brings me to another point; with a computer I was able to travel with the entries, viewing them wherever I was during the time allotted for me to make selections-on a flight to Denmark or in a Norway hotel room. I was able to go back and reference the entries continuously until I chose the best artwork for the exhibition. I'd like to briefly discuss two artworks chosen for juror's awards in photography and video, respectively. For the juror's award in photography, The Hinterlands series are photographs of drawings were made using a black substance thrown onto the snow. The only evidence that this was the process is the occasional sighting of barely-visible vegetation popping out. Otherwise, the photographs look like a series of charcoal drawings. They are in some ways related to action painting, because the energy used to chaotically place the material is evident, but the final product is cropped, an inherent trait of a photograph. However, the image captures the fleeting nature of the drawing, as the snow will melt, the grass will grow up and the drawing will be long gone. It lends itself to earthworks, but there is something more nihilistic, possibly reminiscent of the artist Aaron Young's video piece kicking the camera in the snow, Snowblind. Could this work be leftover from a performance? A set? What is it? The video "Rio Macho" was chosen for a juror's award in video. The artist uses the medium of video to dissect himself into the two characters he layers in constructing the final piece. As he converses with himself in exact timing with the monitor, I feel I can make an art-world reference to his work as the mirroring of Sue de beer's Making Out with Myself (1997) or even more, the howling of Joan Jonas at herself in the video monitor in her early work Duet (1972). Although the idea of mirroring oneself is present in these references, I feel that "Rio Macho" is more a narrative work, like a television serial I could watch all five seasons of in a three day marathon. It's like he's carrying around Max Headroom in a monitor as he, a calm, self-conscious character, converses with the monitor, which has the arrogant mood of "Max Headroom." In the end, I was interested in artwork with a conceptual drive or centered idea without only focusing on the technical abilities of the artist working with the camera as a device. This does not discredit other works submitted that were leaning toward a more formal approach. There were many high quality, technically skilled entries. Many reverberated the contemporary art-world at large. I would like to thank all who entered the exhibition and gave me the opportunity to see so much new work being produced in Ohio.

LOCATION

Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery
546 Jack Gibbs Boulevard
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614-365-6681

GALLERY HOURS | MON-FRI 9am - 4pm
the gallery will be closed March 21-31 for the spring holiday break

FOR MORE INFORMATION | info@roygbivgallery.com

Ryan Agnew
*Breathing Machine* contains audio recorded from a machine my grandmother sleeps with and video recorded at a lake in Virginia where *Dirty Dancing* and *What About Bob* were filmed.

Scott Aigner
At times, I feel that I am reinterpreting, reevaluating, and reinventing the very things that I hold dear to me. My current body of work develops out of an interest in Hollywood films and celebrity culture as an art process. I consider myself not only a "consumer, watcher, recipient, and victim [of mass media and pop culture]. But also an agent of that culture: I am a chooser, interpreter, shaper, fellow player, participant, and storyteller" (Gerard Jones, Killing Monsters). When the work is reassembled, in whatever form it may take on, it becomes something that begins to transcend its origins and take on a new existence. For me, the method of this work is a digestive process. By turning these references into shards and fragments and subsequently reconstructing them, new work emerges. The finished artwork is often a by-product of the process. I am also interested in the role that I play in this cultural landscape and ideas of hyperreality (the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy). It is the "sequence of events and actions through spaces, that is, a nomadic narrative whose path is articulated by the passage of the artist" (Miwon Kwon) that fuels my means of creation. It is in this "space" that I began to examine media culture as a process. In John A. Walker's book Art and Celebrity he states, they [celebrity magazines] are a vision of utopia, one may conclude, that provides readers with a refuge from harsh realities and the boring routines of everyday life. As a nomadic wanderer travels through his landscape looking for the next place to break, I am a traveler perpetually moving across a different landscape and hopefully finding some resting places along the way.

Matthew Burke
Photography Juror's Award Winner We have a small allotment of time. So does the work of our day. Permanence is reducible and insignificant as it turns out. Each thing comes or goes, adds or subtracts, sometimes concurrently, but all will happen during any one period. Spill some dust and it is only temporarily defined as a spill before the world changes it. These moments seem to barely hold their meaning as the future asks for something else. Next. I want to create images that have a strong sense of immediacy and no sense of magnitude. Create by hand without separating from the unending. I can only look for the moments, the places, the sense to see the infinite, the countless layers, the unending abyssal. I wished to be an astronaut, to be the one scraping the edges of our collective membrane.

Brianna Dance
The human body has the profound ability to externalize our interpersonal dynamics through body language and facial expression yet my research strives to externalize the psychological essence of human existence. Specifically, I use the human body to illustrate the psychological effects of human existence in an absurd world. Absurdism is marked by man's search for the meaning in life yet only finding its meaninglessness. Through the medium of video art, I manipulate the human body in a surreal like way in order to present a skewed perception of human beings. By presenting the body in this way, I hope to extradite the psychological feelings that our bodies cannot express otherwise. In addition, the videos are inspired by the motifs of Theatre of the Absurd. This style of theatre served as a central driving point to my work due to its successful transformation of the conceptual idea of absurdism into a visual experience. Through these videos, I hope to expose the viewer to a different perspective of reality other than their own in order to develop a more well-rounded understanding of others' perceptions. In addition, I hope to show the profound ability our bodies have in illustrating conceptual ideas.

Dennis Deane
These four 2009 video works were produced from Hi-8 source material that dates back to the early 90s. Most of the work in these videos is straight, using little to no editing or post-production. These works serve as fragmental documents of events in my personal and professional life.

Marcella Hackbardt
Story Of Knowledges: This series of constructed photographs is a meditation on knowledge, the power of its study and pursuit, and the strength and determination involved in the ways of learning. Here, the body acts in alignment with notions of thought or mindful purpose. People pay attention to the world around them, even to the details of a small interior, a backyard, or the backdrop of a sand dune. Perception is guided by the senses of sight and touch, emphasizing the corporeal nature of knowledge. Reality is not automatic or clear-cut, but in question. Each character in this series attempts an experience that will help them make meaning. My storytelling is staged, often with figures and objects set into spaces they never occupied. The places, people and objects in the photographs are chosen for their symbolic potential as well as for their aesthetic resonance. The wide, horizontal framing of these images is intentionally filmic, and this proportional reference adds to the feeling that the narrative continues. However, in photography, the camera isolates one moment-embarking on storytelling while disrupting narrative-permanently leaving us in suspense. Like finding a page torn from a book, beginnings and endings go undocumented; and without a basis or outcome, the logic of the action remains unclear, complex, and shifting. Throughout human history, light has been a symbol of knowledge in artistic production. In these images, people personify concepts such as knowledge, wonder, thought, learning, ways of understanding information; and, as such, the works become contemporary allegorical photographs. People turn toward the light or carry light sources. The tableaus include nighttime interiors and back yards in which light breaches the darkness, and daytime gardens and glades in which light is rarefied and fulfilling. Sometimes the photograph intentionally does not adhere to the laws of nature, and instead, suggests light that purposefully transcends them. Beyond specific disciplines, such as science or history, Story of Knowledges tells of struggle, longing and resolution. Here, illumination is mixed and precious. The figures' imagination and creativity are key components in these stories of self-awareness, perspective and wisdom. No particular person is cast to impress us with sheer intellectual force. Instead, curiosity and determination are what write these subjects' stories.

Yurika Hirata
I believe what we see with our eyes are not the only vision of the world. As we constantly choosing what we want to see with our eyes, there are so many things that we eliminate from our visions. To observe what we have missed in our daily life, I make works. I do know birds fly, but I do not know how they fly. I have seen snow falling, but I did not know that not every snowflakes fall in the same speed. We tend to think we know about the world very much. However, I want to ask viewers if they really remember what the snow falling looks like, or if they know the light reflection seems like stars sliding on the water. With my works, I hope to give viewers opportunities to discover the new ways of seeing the world as we tend to do when we were a child. To make viewers concentrate on movement happening in the screen more than let them analyze the landscape, I tried to eliminate any cultural references as possible by creating non-existing landscapes. All of the works from scape series are combination of two different clips; the sky clip and the land clip were shot separately, although they were taken at the same place, on the same day, and they were combined digitally later.

Nicholas Hoffman
My recent work is concerned with creating characters or subjects and appropriating already existing forms or roles to place these characters into. The work is not interested in creating new unique avenues, but rather re-contextualizing already existing avenues with fictional subjects, whom I always play the role of. Using play and humor I want these characters to become authoritative tools for questioning the social politics of activities like aerobics, or the purpose of silly YouTube videos, or the value of life coaching. It is important to me to use play and humor as a weapon, and fiction as a tool for subversion.

Satomi Jin
Japanese people call raccoons "Arai-guma" meaning "Washing bears." But I didn't know that they really existed until I moved to the apartment I used to live in Columbus. Where I grew up, near Tokyo, Japan, people had to go to "Squirrel park zoo" to see squirrels and chipmunks. When I saw opossums for the first time in Columbus, I though I discovered a new species of animal. Soon after I started to feed opossums, raccoons started to take over the back yard of my apartment. I was fascinated by the raccoons. They were so aggressive and entertaining. This video is about my pure excitement, my curiosity, and my love of raccoons.

Tyler Joswick
This summer I tried to capture the surreal experience of life in the Empire. This work is from my stay in New York City this past summer and my photographs from then are a collection of personal experiences to be reflected on later in life. When the exact details of why I put them away become hazy and don't matter anymore; that is the time to return to the photographs as they are all that is left taking me back to that time of happiness. Back to that fraction of a second; gone forever, but ingrained in my memory forever."

Allyson Klutenkamper
The work included in this portfolio demonstrates a common thread between two bodies of work. In the primary series is Circumstances (2008 - Present), I explore the different perceptions of events and experiences between siblings with gaps in ages while investigating the construction of memory, and the always-evolving definition one's "self." Every image explores domestic spaces, as the home is often considered a place of comfort, security, symbolic of family and the internal. Within the visual context of my work, I utilize domestic environments to explore the photograph as a visual metaphor for the psyche. Within each image I have found a place where I may create my own subverted reality and confront the psychological connections between the viewer and myself. The figure within each image refers to symbolic character in "stills" from a larger and ambiguous narrative. The juxtaposition between the figure and environment create a fractured narrative that represents isolation, anxiety, and constant perplexity; while encouraging viewers to utilize the concept of beauty as an experience rather than condition. It is critical that this discourse take place - this flux of understanding - so that the singular image functions on its own and within the series, in context and comprehension.

QiAN Li
This video, inspired by a dream, is the life story of two humanized dots discovering love, friendship, and sacrifice while pursuing a dream. The piece intends to evoke personal memories that are emotionally tied to the viewer's own experiences. The visuals are strongly influenced by traditional Chinese brush painting. The audio is synchronized with the video to emphasize the highs and lows experienced by the dots over the course of their existence.

Cosby Lindquist
This series of photographs are a formal study of the superficial surfaces that I encounter on a daily basis. The forms and lines are created with the most banal of subject matter. I wanted to photograph things to see them photographed.

Dominic Lippillo
Under a Calm Surface In this exploration of domesticity, the American Mid-Western working-class home is approached as a site of secrecy and security. Through the use of photography and video, carefully crafted scenes are depicted as minimal theatrical settings where strange occurrences border paranormal states and natural conditions to create a stage for the new American Gothic. Familiar artifacts and relics are used throughout the imagery to present the framework of a family inhabiting forlorn spaces and question if ordinary objects have the potential to trigger a sense of the uncanny. By employing cinematic conventions intertwined with the visual language of photography, a world that exists in images in a way it would not be perceived in reality is presented. This creates a realm of fantasy where reality is threatened and the presence of time is obstructed. In doing so, the home is revealed as a site of trauma where the questioning of logic versus illogic, time versus space, and fact versus fiction arises. According to Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the home is the ideal site for uncanny disturbances since it encompasses a philosophy regarding domesticity, nostalgia, family history, and the functionality of a secure structure. In the nineteenth century, works by writers such as Edgar Allen Poe revolved around these ideas to produce narratives about desolate homes filled with dread and terror. In contemporary art practice, lens-based media, instead of literature, can be used to introduce a degree of authenticity to the works allowing the depicted scenes to retain the illusion that these occurrences can, or did, indeed happen. As I construct scenarios for the camera, I begin to reveal what lies beneath the surface of working-class domesticity, determining what makes my own native environment so threatening. Throughout this work I seek to question the authenticity of the home, interpret family dynamics, and explore the disruption of domestic spaces as they are hidden behind the façade of a seemingly safe and secure structure.

Michelle Maguire
I like things that have been shaped by human hands. Lately I've been driving around on Sunday mornings when it's quiet and I can wander (somewhat) undisturbed in search of barber shops and beauty salons bearing facades which proudly display the art of hand-painted signs. Whether I'm traveling state roads out of town or familiar streets in my home city, I pull over the moment I spot something that makes my heart purr - eccentric business names and idiosyncratic spellings on signs and doors, a collage-style menu of hairstyles taped up in storefront windows, a crudely and charmingly rendered bouffant or coiffure. These photos are part of an ongoing project in which I'm compiling a visual survey of the understated and rough-hewn beauty of urban American nooks and crannies. Having grown up in a family with two uncles who painted signs on mom-and-pop storefronts, I've always been captivated by the typography and hand lettering adorning any surface. Worker-owned barber shops and beauty salons provide autonomous social spaces for building neighborhoods. Beaming with a sense of humor and pride, these establishments evoke individuality and charm. A visit to local barber or salon chair yields not only a new 'do but an emotional uplift. Reminiscent of American folk art, the free-form quality of these signs radiates soul and a spirit that soars.

Krystle Merrow
I tend to have a rather open-ended process to photographing subjects. I allow myself to follow instinct. I don't always have a full grasp on what I'm doing until afterward. I trust my actions and that my subconscious is pushing me in a direction that I may not understand until later. I let the story reveal itself. There is something almost magical about that, of figuring out something you suppose you've already known. My photographs often convey a certain stillness on the surface that tends to carry with it the weight of an underlying intensity. I try to display emotion as if it were a secret; I want the viewer to be drawn in without understanding why, and then, making the discovery, sensing all that is hidden underneath. I am drawn to the emotive, therefore, each image depends on creating a relationship between the viewer and the individual within. I want the photos to feel like little glimpses into the lives or mind of the person depicted. I want to entice empathy. The images I create are mostly constructed scenes. I place a lot of emphasis on the setting, and so it is typical that I search for an environment that intrigues me before deciding anything else about the photograph. Everything plays off each other. After I've found a setting, I work with the models to pick out clothing that will either compliment or completely clash with the scene. I tend to go for an aesthetic with subtle yet competing characteristics, which often creates an underlying quirkiness that I am attracted to. My characters are often shown in an unconventional way - either by showing an awkwardness within mundane situations, or finding something society finds discomfort in or even considers taboo and making it seem normal. I consider it evoking an "appealing discomfort," as people are often intrigued by the things they deem unusual. I think part of my intention is to really question what society deems acceptable, and why people allow their thoughts and beliefs to be limited by what is considered "normal." It's important to me that we are constantly questioning society and that we do not become complacent about the things that don't make sense or we don't agree with. My work is about doing that, not in a shocking way, but hopefully in a way that causes the viewer to think, to connect, and to question.

Takeshi Moro
My work explores the personal and public reconciliation process and how these experiences may be manifested within the experience of art. I am interested in contemplating the accumulated historical weight that each of us inherits in society and which, to a certain extent, defines our identities. At the same time, I am also concerned with the accumulation of our own personal histories and how we negotiate with these experiences in our lives as they weave from past to present. The gesture of bowing, an apology in Japanese culture, is at the heart of my recent "Pedestal for Apology". This project invites participants to explore and share a personal apology with the public. The use of a large format camera requires the subject to retain the bowing position for the duration of the shoot. Thus, the photographic moment also becomes a public display. The simple bowing gesture, raised to an iconic level, is meant to frame ideas of humility and forgiveness for whoever takes the opportunity to perform this act, and also whoever witnesses others performing this act. Perceiving this simple gesture of apology is complicated by its very public situation, which may be seen as equally ridiculous or irreverent. By introducing levity into a very somber situation, I hope to diffuse and humanize the burden of this engagement. As a Japanese man born after World War II, I live with the inherited responsibility of the atrocities that took place during this war. The historical weight of responsibility for these events has been diminished by generations before me, leaving my generation and those that follow to contend with this history. Mirroring the history of the war, I, too, have accumulated events in my personal life that are characterized by guilt, regret and remorse. I am very conscious of the personal and communal burden, and I attempt to address it in a way that recognizes these issues and also brings a degree of absurdity and communal activity as well. I hope that my work may make these burdens visible as well as help disperse this cultural weight into our collective and personal histories.

Jason Nein
My videos let the nature of the site work in tandem with the properties of the person. A performer's weight, endurance, strength, and balance act in concert with the flexibility of a tree branch, the viscosity of a patch of creek mud, or the movement of a pontoon dock bobbing in lake water. My videos frame a performer's intuitive response to a very basic performative prompt. Actions such as stomping, bouncing, pulling, and pushing are applied to particular objects and sites to illicit a movement through space and across the frame. I'm interested in the visual and aural rhythms that I can frame as well as an allusion to those that I cannot. I'm interested in the points at which bodies and objects become abruptly connected; visually and physically.

David Politzer
Video Juror's Award Winner I employ video, photography, performance and sculpture to discuss how mass media representations further confuse the vagaries of contemporary social interaction. Specifically, I'm interested in portrayals of masculinity on the big and small screens, and the expectations they create. Single Channel Works With my single channel video works, I challenge the un-nuanced versions of men we see in popular culture. In contrast, my videos reveal obsession, confusion, insecurity, narcissism and perversity. I work by selecting one of my own private social dysfunctions or a troubling autobiographical anecdote and exaggerate or multiply it. I then present it as a topic of contemplation that addresses universal feelings of vulnerability. I create a character that looks like an average white American male, but is unabashedly candid about sharing his thoughts. I embrace some of the tropes of television in order to critique it. For instance, I play on the audience's familiarity with sitcom humor by appealing to them initially. But by nature of my persistent, exaggerated and multiplied dysfunction, by the end of the video the viewer is left feeling out of the range of his/her PG-13 comfort zone. Because my work is based in autobiography, the tone of my videos fluctuates in tandem with the events of my life. I employ humor as a means of making uncomfortable topics more approachable. In some works I use heightened moments of grief, guilt or tenderness to illustrate milestones or epiphanies. The result is a fuller vision of masculinity that is more in keeping with the complex array of male motivations.

Kate Rhoades
I've been in a long distance relationship with a French Canadian lady named Tracie for over a year. She is the main inspiration for my video work. I steal imagery and sound from the past few months to tell a story of isolation contrasting with moments of connection. My main goal is honesty and to share a part of myself, no matter how personal.

Francis Schanberger
Tree Pollen, Seeds and Forces of Nature When conditions warrant I like many others begin a month of misery lasting most of April. Curious as to the source of my incessant sneezing, I began to collect parts of trees such as flowers, pollen, seeds and leaves by taking cuttings or gathering pieces that had fallen near the base of trees. These samples are scanned into a computer, made into transparencies and printed in the Van Dyke Brown process on [a Japanese] Kozu Unryu paper. The resulting images are botanical studies of small pieces of trees some of which in the spring can be a humbling force of nature.

Cameron Sharp
I have been documenting and collecting as a way to possess time and cheat death. Substantiating my mother through images is my attempt to access a new and singular relationship with her as alive and well. Perhaps, through working with these images I will find ease in dealing with my loss as well as offer respectful homage. And maybe this existence of my mother through images can, in some way, prolong her existence on earth.

Luke Snailham
Movies, in my opinion, are one of the most engaging art forms in existence. They have the unique ability to immerse the viewer in a world that is not their own. The majesty contained within a photograph can capture the attention of a viewer and create a stir of ideas, feelings, beliefs, and emotions, but these stimuli are often only momentary. A viewer may casually glance at a mediocre work and move on, whilst a more compelling piece may garner the attention of the viewer a little longer. Rarely does a photograph create the feeling of escapism that a movie does, that ability to truly involve yourself within the work. Of course, a movie has at least ninety minutes to tell its story, whereas a photograph must do the same with just one frame. This is the challenge with my work. A challenge that I embrace with as much passion as any film maker. It is my hope that each work, each frame, can tell a story.

Jeremy Stone
Throughout our lives I believe that we all are moving along a path or trajectory, leaving behind us a trail that shows where we have been, while ahead of us lies an infinite number of possible paths along which we may chose to move. The trails that lie behind us are intangible, something we cannot physically interact with or even see, these are our metaphysical paths. However the individual experiences, interactions, and knowledge that we acquire along the way become the evidence of the path along which we have traveled. We are the culmination, or the physical manifestation, of every experience acquired along the path. These images represent the physical paths along which we may travel. The planes in these photographs have flown from locations all across the country, and each one is filled with dozens and some even hundreds of passengers. Now the passengers aboard these planes have been following their own individual paths throughout their lives, yet for this flight, for this few hours, they have all come together to travel along the same path. I image all the different trails, both physical and metaphysical of the passengers aboard these planes. Where they traveled from before arriving at the airport, what paths had they taken and what experiences they have had. I visualize a vast web constructed of the different trails crisscrossing the land, becoming denser and denser as they near the airport until finally, once onboard the plane. Here their trails merge and line up as they spend these few hours together, moving along their paths. Afterwards, once arriving at the airport the passengers once again go their different ways creating another web of trails that once again spreads out and continues to grow.

Sarah Weinstock
My husband's parents took us on a cruise this summer and I found myself recording moments where fluctuations in light were describing events taking place elsewhere. This video is composed of clips taken with the 30 second video recording capability of my digital still camera. I am interested in our ability to "see" something that isn't visible by interpreting incidental information. I am able to understand the disposition of the ocean by the way light reflects off its waves and onto the ceiling of my cabin. I am able to understand how air is moving by watching the shadow of the trees caught in it. This piece's audio was created digitally, using a custom instrument made from looped transitions between octaves on my flute. It contains no defined pitches and no fixed rhythm.

Joseph Vogt
My intent is to always deliver crisp lines and stark backgrounds within an overall clean presentation. Whether the model is nude, floral or weaponry, the intent is to always allow the photograph to speak for itself without complexity. The size of the presentation has a major influence on the photographs by creating a cinematic effect to the work. With the larger presentation, a sexy photograph becomes more sexual, a flower becomes more beautiful and a weapon becomes much more dangerous.

Sheilah Wilson
This is a social practice project that asks participants to submit written descriptions of their favorite photographs. This project allows me to gather and collect the articulation of what people remember or hold precious about photographs. It turns photography inside out, by asking people not to create an image but to verbalize a memory of an image. In many ways this is, essentially, what photography actually is. It is the image which we make memory around. It is a catalyst for creating history and contextualizing ourselves, our family, societal and personal markers. We weave our own stories around photographs. They are the skeleton around which we create memory. In taking away the image I am forcing people to come into contact with the written articulation of how we see and remember. This idea of turning photography from visual to verbal is a destabilizing premise. We live in a society where the image is king. To take away image and ask only for description is an entirely new way of articulating. This is an innovative way of presenting photo work as well, since the whole premise is to deny the image and only allow us into the world of the image through a written description of someone else's memory. This project is an installation at present, with a gathering of people's memories, and also photographs of other memories of photographs. Ultimately, this project will be realized as a book work.

Erica Woodrum
I am Erica Woodrum and I am a fifth year college student but third year at The Ohio State University where I am a photography major. My main strategy when capturing images is the feeling behind it. I only shoot photographs that I feel very strong about and that mean something to me. I enjoy using political and cultural stand points as well as the media. I mainly like to shoot documentary portraits where I can capture things about the media that the world needs to see. One of the photographs that I have entered, little boy smoking cigarette, is my attempt to make fun of adult habits that children do not understand. I love how innocent children are and how they interact with each as compared to adults. I also love capturing people in their natural environments, as real as they can be. The work I have submitted is a combination of all the categories I enjoy and strive on.