Remembered Room
Jerry Pethick
July 21 – September 30, 1993
Jerry Pethick, Remembered Room, 1993; Photo array: Fresnel lenses, steel, photographs; 7' H x 9'L x 2'W. Dog: steel, barrel, 10.5' H x 6.5' L x 4'W
Artist Statement
The visual echo enriched world of memory sometimes has a spatial quality akin to daydreams; a still, silent timelessness. The photo element of this work is based on integral photography's illusory space and the intruding object element, a material bridge that relates the tangibility of the viewer to the object and the illusion.
The photo array's reconstructed image (Qualicum Falls) creates a low resolution illusory space which may remind us of other memory images that reside in our consciousness. All the photos of the array are of different viewpoints of the same scene and become one large single composite image with attendant space. This photo array's entire picture is viewed as peering through a veil-like aperture to the illusory space beyond.
This awareness of volume is assisted by the close proximity to the object (the dog) which lends a sense of materiality and weight and yet is not a highly resolved element.
The awareness of another visual space adjoined with the sculptural element attempts to trigger some residue of memory, which at surprising times jumps out at us and transports us to other places that we aren't able to normally retrieve. These memories, by existing outside our normal process of recall, I feel carry a precognitive recognition of ourselves within a spatial context.
