HUMAN REMAINS
Human Remains
Patrick Griffin
Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter
March 29 - April 29 2007
Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter is pleased to present a solo exhibition by photographer Patrick Griffin. In this exhibition of over twenty new photographs , screen print and sculpture, everyone has a pile! Whether jumbles of limbs in a human pile, thickets of refuse betraying a recent assemblage of them, or a portrait of one of his friends who… who is kind of a total pile, this new body of work focuses on the various formal possibilities of, and the curious narratives surrounding, piles and puddles and jumbles and stacks.
Training his lens on his community of young people who live in radical ways, not to focus on the hijinks, hairstyles, or scandalous business, but to look obliquely: Patrick tells the truth but tells it slant. His work is of chief interest because it tells a story of lived experience (which may include fashion, folly, drugs, sex, etc) but never tells it the way it is portrayed in advertisements, high-end photo shoots, or whatever lame party photo blogs you can look at. His photos are too authentic for that, and subtle in a way that requires concerted attention; instead of a flashed nipple or a snorted rail, he looks instead at the moment of declension, of the engaging detritus that lies in the wake of a moment.
Laundry piles in isolation look sculptural; boy puddles make lakes in odd, topographical bed maps: Patrick’s wry humor and, sensitive attention to oft-overlooked details direct our attention away from the party to the strange items eddying in the corners. One has probably never pondered, say, the difference in texture and albedo between a serious fast food spill on New York pavement and a boxed wine splatter on an Oakland house party linoleum floor; the confusion in a cloud of spray paint, next to that of a young punk boy fight. One photo of a complete outfit on a crap hotel floor is actually a stunning portrait of the oft- photographed photographer Dash Snow, as the absence of a thing can oft be more telling than the presence of a thing. His photos are not about the subcultural goings-on themselves, but are instead authentically situated within the lifestyle he lives to examine a suggestive something else.
related links :
patt fink (blog)
frienemies (zine)
sf chronicle article
photos from opening
art business review