On exhibit at Modified Arts this month are photographs by Ernie Button that utilize techniques of magnification and distortion to blur the edges between object and person, documentary photography and portraiture. The photographs are from three bodies of work: The Martial Plan, The Imaginary Combat of Little Green Army Men and Not Your Libre. We asked Button to explain his work:
"Rather than a straight-forward documentation of life-like figures, I used optical lenses (i.e. magnifying lenses) to provide a distortion of this reality. The distortion implies action and motion, something that a static figure can't do on its own. The images reveal more than mere documentation. They became examiniations of the toy's personality, their characater, what they might do should they come to life. The use of light and level of distortion encouraged the images to take on a different dimension than just 'toys,' blurring the line between toy and human, the line between documentation and portraiture.
For me, my work is typically more about a recognition of things that are often taken for granted, overlooked or ignored and how the meaning of things change as we get older. For instance, a lot of adults have played with little green army men at one time or another when they were younger. But as we grow and mature and have different thoughts and concerns than we did when we were in our single-digit years, all of those thoughts and life experiences put added layers of meaning and depth to a seemingly innocuous toy. Currently being at war and noting how the war affects individuals and families, both on a physical and emotional level, well, it's hard to look at the little green army men as just a toy anymore.
I did a series of photographs entitled "Back and Forth" where I went in search of the coin-operated grocery store rides that used to occupy the front of a grocery store. I noticed that the store that I shopped at every week had a ride but another store that I frequented had their ride removed. I went in search of more rides and found that they are not as plentiful as they used to be. On the surface, the thought of photographing coin-operated grocery store rides appears to be fun and superficial. But 5 years after beginning this project, I returned to a number of sites of my original photographs. Many of the rides were gone. Some of the actual buildings were gone. A few of the rides had been changed out for new ones by a ride still remained. As the population and economy of our city grows and changes, so does the urban landscape. The demographics evolve and the family oriented population shifts to a different part of the city or country. Essentially, things change.
And that's where a lot of my ideas come from; just the observation of what's changing in my own life/what's changing in the world around me that I can bring my own photographic sensibilities to. When I make work, I try to have a healthy mix of humor, nostalgia, irony with underlying more seriour thought / questions. Some of my work is more heavily weighted toward nostalgia or toward humor, but I try to make images that contain all of these elements."
Ernie Button: The Martial Plan
Modified Arts
407 East Roosevelt
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tel.: (602) 462-5516
Web: modified.org
Email: kimber@modified.org
Artist's website: www.erniebutton.com
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