Anyone at home can now view the vast and varied beauty of Colorado through the eyes of the state’s most celebrated landscape photographer.
History Colorado on Tuesday announced it had finished digitizing, cataloging and organizing a webpage dedicated to more than 6,500 images of John Fielder’s illustrious career spanning close to 50 years. The organization had previously announced Fielder donating his life’s work in hopes of inspiring an appreciation of nature and climate action.
The photos found on the John Fielder’s Colorado Collection webpage can be pulled for private and commercial use. The site includes curated lists for viewers to explore the mountains and plains of every county in the state just as Fielder did.
For decades, the photos have been seen on coffee tables and across walls of homes and offices everywhere. That includes the office of Gov. Jared Polis.
“This photograph is a constant reminder of the natural wonders found in our state, which generations of conservationists, lawmakers and everyday people have fought to protect for the enjoyment of future generations,” Polis said in a news release. “This collection, and the exhibitions that will come from it, are a chance for us to celebrate John and all he has accomplished, but more importantly, to honor the legacy he has created and the gift he is giving to the people of Colorado.”
Later this summer, History Colorado expects to open an exhibit at its downtown center affording a more intimate journey through Fielder’s career. Much of that career has been dedicated to conservation; Fielder has always sought wilds and waters to photograph and show to lawmakers in charge of protection.
The collection “is a profound opportunity for Coloradans to see the breathtaking vistas that define the Centennial State,” History Colorado Executive Director Dawn DiPrince said in the news release, “and evaluate if the relationship we have with the land will allow for our grandchildren to experience the same wonders.”
Upon the announcement of his donation, Fielder in an interview explained how he had seen landscapes change since he started photographing in the 1970s. In a life that saw him lose his wife to illness and son to suicide, Fielder described the loss of nature as heartbreaking as well.
“It’s like losing a wife and son, you think about them every day,” he said. “So too do I think about the impact humans have on Earth and what it’s going to be like here.”
In preparation for the donation, sifting through tens of thousands of files from his pre- and post-digital camera days gave him that reflection. It has been a deep time of reflection for Fielder, 72.
After months of quietly battling pancreatic cancer, he recently went public with the diagnosis.
One “incredible asset to (organizing the collection) is I revisited all these places that have defined my life, the most sublime places in Colorado,” Fielder said in a previous Gazette interview. “That was an incredible treat.”
He thought back to his father from his North Carolina childhood. He remembered the man for volunteering and raising money for charitable causes.
“He was a man who believed you have to give back to your community,” Fielder said. “I’ve been able to give back to my community, and I feel like no matter what happens to me, I’ve achieved all of my goals.”
“Talking Shit with Amaru” (2021), mineral paint and flashe on canvas, 132 x 204 inches. All images © Eamon Ore-Giron, courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York, shared with permission
A mélange of architectural structures, cosmic mappings, South American textiles, hieroglyphics, and Indigenous symbols emerge in vivid, balanced color in Eamon Ore-Giron’s paintings. Often rendered in flashe and mineral paint on large-scale linen canvases, the works are enveloping and visionary, transporting the viewer into Ore-Giron’s flat, geometric vistas.
Currently based in Los Angeles, the artist is deeply influenced by his surroundings. He was raised in Tucson by a Peruvian father and mother of Irish descent, embedding him within a distinct medley of global cultures from Latino and Indigenous to Andean and European. The visual language of this mixed heritage is evident in his paintings, particularly his more recent Talking Shit and Infinite Regress series.
On view now as part of Competing with Lightning / Rivalizando con el relámpago at The Contemporary Austin, the works make a stark departure from Ore-Giron’s earlier figurative pieces and instead favor symmetries, geometric shapes, and ancient motifs. The more vibrant of the series is Talking Shit, which was born out of the artist’s time in Guadalajara, and engages with the gods of Mexican and Peruvian cultures. In the massive, 204-inch-wide “Talking Shit with Amaru,” Ore-Giron interprets the mythological serpentine creature of Incan and Andean lore. The two-headed beast is thought to transcend boundaries between the spiritual and earthly worlds, which appears in the work through careful cross-sections and a shapely form that leads in several directions.
Infinite Regress shifts to metallics, with wide swaths of gold emanating from a central totemic form. “In philosophy, infinite regress is a sequence of reasoning which can never come to an end: a paradox of infinite regeneration that disproves the concept of fixed knowledge—in connecting one element to another, a third one is always interpolated and so on, endlessly,” a statement about the series says. Through thin lines reaching distant intersections and circles nestled in color-blocked stripes, many of the works evoke a distant horizon, the always unreachable and ever-recurring point.
If you’re in Austin, you can see Competing with Lightning / Rivalizando con el relámpago through August 20. Otherwise, find more of Ore-Giron’s works on his site.
“Talking shit with Coatlicue” (2017), flashe on linen, 79 9/10 × 65 inches
“Black Medallion XXIII” (2023), mineral paint and flashe on linen, 72 x 72 inches. Photo by Charles White/JWPictures.com, © Eamon Ore-Giron, courtesy of the artist, James Cohan, New York, and Fleisher/Ollman,
Philadelphia
“Night Shade” (2016), flashe on linen, 84 x 60 inches
“Infinite Regress CLXXXIV” (2021), flashe and mineral paint on linen, 120 x 120 inches. Photo by Charles White/JWPictures.com, © Eamon Ore-Giron, courtesy of the artist, James Cohan, New York, and Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia
“Black Medallion XV (Mama-Quilla)’ (2023), mineral paint and flashe on linen, 174 x 300 inches. Photo by Charles White/JWPictures.com, © Eamon Ore-Giron, courtesy of the artist, James Cohan, New York, and Fleisher/Ollman,
Philadelphia
“Infinite Regress CLXXXVIII” (2021), mineral paint and flashe on linen, 120 x 156 inches. Photo by Charles White/JWPictures.com, © Eamon Ore-Giron, courtesy of the artist, James Cohan, New York, and Fleisher/Ollman,
Philadelphia
Installation view, Eamon Ore-Giron: Competing with Lightning/Rivalizando con el relámpago, The Contemporary Austin (2023). Artwork © Eamon Ore-Giron, courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo by Alex Boeschenstein, courtesy of The Contemporary Austin
The artist at work on “Talking Shit with Amaru”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Monumental Paintings by Eamon Ore-Giron Translate Cultural Symbols into Vivid Geometries appeared first on Colossal.
أبوظبي في 6 يونيو/ وام/ نظمت مديرية التحريات والتحقيقات الجنائية بقطاع الأمن الجنائي وإدارة الشرطة المجتمعية بقطاع أمن المجتمع في القيادة العامة لشرطة أبوظبي مجلساً توعوياً بعنوان “الأمن والسلامة الإلكترونية..مسؤولية مجتمعية” وذلك في روضة الأمل بمنطقة الشهامة في إمارة أبوظبي بحضور عدد كبير من أولياء الأمور والكادر التعليمي وتلاميذ الروضة.وشهدت الجلسة تفاعلاً كبيراً من الأطفال وأسرهم والكادر التعليمي حول الطرق الآمنة للتعامل مع البرامج والألعاب الإلكترونية واتخاذ الإجراءات السليمة التي تضمن أمنهم وسلامتهم عند التعامل مع شبكة الإنترنت.وأكد الرائد علي فارس النعيمي بمديرية التحريات والتحقيقات…
“Il Ritorno d’Ulisse” (2021), woven paper investiture from the scores of ‘Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria’ by Claudio Monteverdi, 150 x 130 x 40 centimeters. All images © Catalina Swinburn, shared with permission
“The cloak is a talisman from harm, keeping one safe and secure throughout transitions,” says Chilean artist Catalina Swinburn, whose elaborate sculptures use thousands of pieces of folded paper to explore world history. Living and working between Buenos Aires and London, she is drawn to ideas around migration and displacement, turning material derived from books, documents, and maps into large-scale wall pieces and intricate, robe-like compositions.
Swinburn is interested in liminality, the process of transitioning across borders or boundaries in space or time that often requires formal procedures. She focuses on investitures, a term that applies to both an honorary ceremony and a type of garment that covers, protects, or adorns the wearer. “My works are what I called Ritual Investitures that extend power and resistance by the way they are constructed,” she says, “also in the fictional idea of how this can be used as an armour to protect, or wings to fly, or become something you wish.”
Detail of “Il Ritorno d’Ulisse” (2021)
From meticulously folded pieces of paper comes a draping fabric, often mounted onto a panel or photographed as it wraps around a figure’s shoulders. The historically fraught practices of collecting and exhibiting cultural artifacts, ceremonial materials, and human remains is also a touchpoint for Swinburn, as she considers the nature of ownership, power, bias, and representation. She often uses archaeological volumes for her sculptures, culling pages cataloging ancient Roman floor mosaics or antiquities. “Athánatoi,” for example, is woven from vintage sheets containing documentation of displaced glazed bricks from the Palace of Darius, Susa, an ancient city in modern-day Iran.
In archaeology, textiles rarely survive, adding another layer of mystique to craft and garment traditions around the world. “Textiles are among the most visible signs of sacred spaces and sacred roles,” Swinburn says. Using a technique she calls “inset” or embedding, the artist creates a durable fabric with a robust geometric structure that references built environments and patterns employed by Indigenous groups. “The weaving is designed with a stepped pattern inspired from the sacred ruins and old scaffold textiles used in the Andean cultures,” she says. “Referring to the suyu whipala structure, each module is cut and joined together manually.”
“Athánatoi” (2021), woven paper investiture from vintage archeological documentation books relating to the displacement of archeological glazed bricks from the Palace of Darius, Susa, 180 x 150 x 30 centimeters
Books have fascinated Swinburn since childhood, when her father amassed stacks of volumes about architecture and prehistoric civilizations. She finds her source material in charity shops, markets, fairs, and during her travels, often inspired by a unique title or vintage illustrations. “Books for me are like pilgrims: they are also constantly travelling and moving,” she says. “They have passed from different hands, so it holds its narrative, but for me, also the narrative of it’s own journey.” The portability of Swinburn’s materials is a significant aspect of her practice, since she travels frequently. Her technique involves slicing out the leaves, then carefully cutting and folding into precise squares that can be bundled up and taken anywhere.
Textiles have been long been associated with domestic activities and often disparaged as “women’s work.” Swinburn turns the tables on this narrative, exploring the representation of women throughout time or highlighting their absence from the record altogether. She says, “I mostly named all of my pieces out of names for emblematic women: Penelope, Arachne, Inanna, Astarte, Isis, Phoenix, Cocha, Quilla, Copacati, Dido, Aida… I always think, what about if history would have been told from a feminine perspective? I want to bring back these narratives and empower them, for us all to think on how powerful they have been.”
Swinburn will open a solo exhibition in a London chapel with Selma Feriani Gallery this October. You an find more of her work on her website and Instagram.
Detail of “Athánatoi” (2021)
“Apadana” (2021), woven paper from archaeological documentation of stone displaced from Persepolis, 370 x 410 centimeters
Detail of “Apadanis” (2021)
“Cocha” (2021), handwoven paper investiture piece made from selected cut pieces from Latin American maritime seafront atlases and maps, 130 x 150 x 45 centimeters
Detail of “Cocha” (2021)
“Penelope” (2020), performative photo with woven investiture made from scores of ‘Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria’ by Claudio Monteverdi, 120 x 180 centimeters
“Autobiography of a Yogi” (2019), woven paper, 234 x 270 centimeters
Pieces in progress for “Autobiography of a Yogi” (2019)
“Quilla” (2021), woven paper investiture made from vintage music scores of the national hymns of Latin America, 150 x 150 x 40 centimeters
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Catalina Swinburn Meticulously Excavates the History and Ceremony of Textiles in Her Woven Paper ‘Investitures’ appeared first on Colossal.
Every year, East Quay enlists an artist for their Pod 5 Artist Residency, which invites a creative to live in and transform a small living space called Pod 5 in Watchet, West Somerset, United Kingdom. For 2023, they tapped London-based artist Ikra Arshad, known for her large-scale murals and installations, to stay for two weeks and put her mark on the space. Arshad brought her playful style merging pastel shades and monochrome tones with geometric patterns for a lively, energetic feel.
She incorporated orange to reflect the local Somerset clay, along with pink, purple, and green that give nod to the noteworthy sunsets and local flora. Rounding out the pastels are more graphic sections with black and white stripes, black geometric shapes, and a white/black grid found on the bedding. The space comes together for a bold yet calming aesthetic.
The mezzanine is turned into “The Dreaming Room” as a relaxing space for visitors to ideate and reflect.
Arshad says: “As the sun rises and sets on the harbor, the mural and shelf objects will change and shift in its appearance, acting as a prominent sundial throughout the day whilst people experience the artworks. The immersive artworks will act as a creative intervention, sparking the viewer’s curiosity and a fresh perspective of seeing the world.”
The elevated pod lives atop the East Quay building overlooking the Bristol Channel and marina, making for an inspiring location. Along with renovating Pod 5, Arshad spent her two-week residency leading creative workshops with the local community, from toddlers to adults.
Launched in 2021, East Quay is a thriving hub in the Watchet community for creativity and activity, with galleries, artist studios, education space, print studio, paper mill, restaurant, and five accommodation pods, including Pod 5.
Artist Ikra Arshad painting art pod Photo: George Harwood Smith
Previous interior of art pod designed by Bristol artist Andy Council Photo: Joseph Horton
Want to call Pod 5, or any of the other four pods, home for a short or extended stay? You can book them here.
Photos, except where noted, by Jesse Wild.
Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Photography Professor Andrea Modica is known for using a distinctive technique to photograph her subjects that requires a great deal of patience. Eschewing the latest technology, Modica uses a large-format camera that was state-of-the-art in the 1920s and a platinum print-making process that was popular the mid 1800s. In a moment when digital photographers can instantly review their shots and have limitless options for editing and retouching, Modica’s process stands apart for the time it takes — both to make the photograph and to make the subjects feel comfortable enough to forget about the big camera in the room.
Modica, a Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Scholar whose photos are part of permanent exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art and have been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker and TIME magazine among others, puts in the time to build trust with her subjects, whether they’re minor league baseball players you might recognize, Italian high schoolers, or Mummers in South Philadelphia. Her latest work, on display at Unique Photo in Philadelphia through June 30, is a series set in an equine hospital in the small town of Budrio di Bagnarola in northern Italy. Modica spent eight years photographing the caregivers and their patients, ultimately producing a book recognized as one of the best collections of photography in 2022.
Modica discussed her work on the project at length in an introduction for the book, that she excerpted below for the Drexel New Blog. She also took a moment to discuss the challenges of teaching a new generation of photographers and the benefits of a more deliberate process.
Three years ago, I began photographing with my 8X10” view camera at a horse hospital in the small town of Budrio di Bagnarola in northern Italy. The facility is owned by the prominent veterinary surgeon Fabio Torre and it attracts remarkable and, generally, very valuable horses for a range of procedures. I became aware of the hospital through Dr. Torre, who is also an art enthusiast. I was immediately drawn to the contrast of these magnificent animals rendered so vulnerable.
I began photographing the horses in their post-operative recovery rooms: simple padded stalls with overhead windows, which produce lovely, filtered light. The floors are covered with the doctor’s recycled shredded junk mail, medical journals and art magazines. The stalls are at once theatrical stages and humble boxes. In my photographs the horses are in a state of post-operative anesthetic sleep. They are recovering from operations that include, among other things, fracture repairs, complicated dental work and castrations.
The second facet of this project is comprised of still lifes of the tools of surgery prior to procedures. I spent many hours photographing Dr. Torre’s extensive collection of spectacular tools, choosing to use the recovery stalls as my studio, thus employing the same light and atmosphere as the prior group of photographs. These images include the marks on the walls, made by the horses as they awaken from their post-operative anesthetic sleep. These platinum prints are titled with the name of each tool, which often refers to its inventor and the procedure for which it is used.
The next group of photographs in this project includes still lifes of the tools of surgery after the procedures. I made these photographs in the operating room, where I utilized the lights of the surgical theatre. I was particularly drawn to the manner with which the tools were returned to the table after use, often reflecting the type of surgery performed. For example, after a routine arthroscopic surgery the instruments are often returned in neat piles, while a post-colic table may convey a sense of a more dramatic emergency procedure. The titles of these platinum prints include the date and name of the surgical procedure.
The final part of this project is a series of short films. I filmed each horse’s eye while the horse was being sedated before the operation. The films can be quite abstract, referring often to landscape. The soundtracks are comprised of the horse’s heartbeat, the doctors’ conversations and the staticky radio playing contemporary Italian pop music and advertisements.
For all the images in this project I produce 8×10” contact prints on vellum, utilizing the 19th century, hand-coated platinum process. The delicate tones created by this process illuminate the details in the horses’ powerful physiques and the sensuous light in which they sleep, as well as the odd piles of shredded paper on which they lay.
Inspired by the region’s High Renaissance art, the mannerly structure of the photographs in combination with the soft platinum tones are in direct contrast to the aggressiveness of the procedures the horses have endured and their anesthetic vulnerability. I am transfixed by their slumber; they appear comfortable, yet fragile, both powerful and compromised. This induced sleep marks the end of their operation and the beginning of their recovery. It is at once terrifying and hopeful, always moving. The title of each of these photographs includes the horse’s name and breed, the date and the type of operation the horse has undergone.
In the end, all the images from the horse hospital project are highly descriptive, yet not illustrative of any specific idea; they will be absorbed and interpreted by the viewer. The extended tonal range of the platinum print in combination with the formal elements I employ welcome a broad audience, as well as a great variety of complex and impactful interpretations. Both the films and the platinum prints can be deceptive in their seductive beauty, finally presenting potentially unsettling information, perhaps inviting us to ponder our own vulnerability and temporariness, strength and endurance. As with much of my work, this project is not documentary in nature, but truly conceptual.
Modica is now teaching students who have lived their entire lives in the age of digital photography. And while these tools enable photographers to record places and parts of life that were previously inaccessible, Modica and her colleagues emphasize the value of learning and maintaining a deliberate process.
“The fast pace of producing digital images can be challenging, in fact. In the Photography program we are committed to teaching the students to slow down the shooting process and be more decisive and informed practitioners,” she said. “To assist with this, all our majors start with mastering analog techniques, including working with a large format camera, hand processing film and working in the darkroom, as well as getting a deep understanding of the history of photography and contemporary trends in both fine art and commercial applications.”
For more information about Modica’s work, visit: http://www.andreamodica.com/
Reporters interested in speaking with Modica should contact Britt Faulstick, executive director, News & Media Relations, bef29@drexel.edu or 215.895.2617.
