Art
Lectures
Wrinkles in time “Transmutations: Photographic Works by Carl Chiarenza” THROUGH OCTOBER 12 AXOM GALLERY, 176 ANDERSON AVE., SUITE 303 232-6030 X23, AXOMGALLERY.COM WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY NOON-5 P.M., AND BY APPOINTMENT | FREE AND SPECTRUM GALLERY AT LUMIERE PHOTO, 100 COLLEGE AVE. 461-4447, SPECTRUMGALLERYROC.COM TUESDAY-FRIDAY 10 A.M.-6 P.M., SATURDAY 10 A.M.-2 P.M. | FREE [ REVIEW ] BY REBECCA RAFFERTY
Of the transmission of experience through art, poet Robert Frost wrote, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” Though renowned photographer Carl Chiarenza creates abstract works that are purposefully open to viewers’ interpretations, the crystallized emotional experience of the artist is present in his works and resonates powerfully within each image. In honor of Chiarenza’s 78th birthday, Axom Gallery and Spectrum Gallery are co-presenting a look at his prolific oeuvre, the result of decades of playing amid the environs of his subconscious mind. “Transmutations” is a selection of Chiarenza’s work pulled from a body curated by photography historian Robert Hirsch for an exhibition that took place at the University of Buffalo’s Anderson Gallery in late 2012. The show chronicles Chiarenza’s photography since the pivotal year of 1979, when he shifted from documentary-style photography to creating photographic images entirely within a studio setting, creating collages from scraps of various materials and photographing them with Polaroid-type film. In fact, the last image that Chiarenza shot outdoors, “Rockland 2,” is included in the Spectrum Gallery portion of the show. When the artist was teaching a workshop in Maine in 1979, he spotted and snapped a few pieces of warped plywood. Though his artistic approach changed drastically after he made this image, his familiar aesthetic sensibility is present in the serpentine curve of the boards, the bright highlights along the edges of the textured wood, and the lush, dark abyss tugging at the viewer’s focus. Chiarenza’s images are rife with stark chiaroscuro and a rich scale of silvers set
against a void, hinting at moonscapes or landscapes painted by moonlight. What the artist accomplishes by catching light in the crinkles and folds of layered cast-off materials is astounding. The photographs suggest tangible elements of this
world — at Spectrum Gallery, in “Woods 529,” delicately rendered trunks and branches emerge glittering from manifold creases in a papery surface, revealing the artist’s mastery of generating forms from tiny piles of rubbish. At Axom Gallery, a crisp envelope lip in one work “Untitled #126” is part of Carl Chiarenza’s photograph show now on becomes the clear sky display at both Axom Gallery and Spectrum Gallery. PHOTO PROVIDED above dark mountains, and in another, patterned The series, which includes “Don Quixote paper resembles a tree-dotted, snowy hill 190,” currently on display at Axom, and rising over a lake that gleams with a gently “Peace Warrior (Don Quixote) 188,” at swaying band of moonlight. But the images Spectrum, offers abstracted figures made from are also territories of the numinous. Staring torn, twisted, crumpled, and folded bits of into these worlds, I feel the peace of looking metal and fiber, and depicts them in shabby on from far away, unencumbered by the armor, holding makeshift weapons, trudging silent dramas of any unknowable inhabitants along or in vigilant stances. Though the found there. There is beauty, and the pull of figures resemble soldiers in their names and mystery, and the passage of time. But this is garb, they are bereft of any sense of violence only one interpretation. and seem like evolved beings. Similarly, At Axom Gallery, the moody image, the figures in Chiarenza’s Samurai series, “Untitled #126,” is comprised of carefully represented in this exhibition by “Samurai arranged bits of gleaming and fibrous 329,” at Axom, wear worn protective burdens, material that are transformed into a layered, but are often haloed and surrounded by cavernous space, where time has wrinkled the a whisper of wings, confronting us with a shimmering, wet stone, and veins of precious countenance entirely inscrutable. metal run throughout. Nearby, “Untitled Though retired from teaching art and art #11” contrasts many differently patterned history, Chiarenza hasn’t retired from creating. materials, and moving back away from it, He’s making a new kind of picture these days, the abstract forms become perhaps sparkling by cutting some of his older photographs city lights, below rolling hills, below striated and using the pieces to make collages — contrails crisscrossing a dark sky. this time, the work will remain physical collages of photographs instead of becoming Also included in the show are a few works photographs of collages. Chiarenza has sent from Chiarenza’s “Peace Warrior” series, two works in this new series to locations in which he created in response to his despair New York City, and the artist plans to show over the United States’ declaration of war on his new work in Rochester next year. Iraq more than a decade ago. The artist says it’s unusual for him to create representational Spectrum Gallery will host A Conversation with works, and images with a specific purpose in Carl Chiarenza on Tuesday, October 1, at 7 p.m. mind. Having seen many wars in his nearly eight decades of life, Chiarenza is frustrated by our seemingly endless stream of conflicts, and finds refuge in his work.
24 CITY SEPTEMBER 25 - OCTOBER 1, 2013
36 King St. $10-$20 for lecture, $20-$30 for lecture & dinner 2874348. karchie72@yahoo.com. Roger Campbell on Natural Health. 2 p.m. Books Etc., 78 W. Main St Macedon. Free. 474-4116. books_etc@yahoo.com. Tourette Fall Symposium. 9-11:30 a.m. UR Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Blvd. Adults and children ages 9 and up welcome Free. 752-6190. info@ rochestertourette.org. [ SUN., SEPTEMBER 29 ] “General Józef Zachariasz Bem (1794-1850): Son of Poland, Hero of Hungary” by Louis I. Nagy. 4:30 p.m. University of Rochester, River Campus, LeChase Hall, Genrich-Rusling Room Free. 2759898. rochester.edu. Skalny Center Lecture: Four-thirty Tea. 3-4:30 p.m. University of Rochester, River Campus Free. 276-1952. rochester.edu/skalny. Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street. 5 p.m. Flying Squirrel Community Space, 285 Clarissa St. With writer and organizer Mark Bray flyingsquirrel.rocus.org. United by Faith: A Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Series. 10 a.m. Turkish Cultural Center, 2692 Dewey Ave. Free. 453-0533. [ MON., SEPTEMBER 30 ] A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation. 6:30 p.m. Rochester Brainery, Village Gate, 274 N Goodman St. $15. 730-7034. info@ rochesterbrainery.com. rochesterbrainery.com. [ TUE., OCTOBER 1 ] “Ethiopia’s Students with Hearing Loss” with Catherine Beers and Mary Grace Hamme. 11 a.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 25 Westminster Rd Evening meeting at 7 p.m.: ask the audiologists 271-2240. hlaa-rochester-ny.org. “Modern Writing: The Most Important Tool for Writing a Blog, a Book, and Everything in Between” with Evan Dawson. 10 a.m. Finger Lakes Community College, 3325 Marvin Sands Dr 785-1389. flcc.edu. Social Media and the Job Search. 7 p.m. Penfield Public Library, 1985 Baird Rd. Free. 3408720. jmathis@libraryweb.org. penfieldlibrary.org. State of Rochester’s Economy.. 11:45 a.m. Hyatt Regency Rochester, 125 E. Main St $45$50, RSVP. rddc.org. [ WED., OCTOBER 2 ] Chiapas: Behind the Resistance. 7 p.m. Downtown United Presbyterian Church, 121 N. Fitzhugh Street Filmmakers and photojournalists Orin Langelle and Bill Jungels will show their documentary films, A Darker Shade of Green and Broken Branches, Fallen Fruit, that explore social and ecological justice issues in Chiapas, Mexico, that affect us all Free. 325-4000. rocla.us. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s War Career and Post War Career with Derek Maxfield and tom Schobert. 7 p.m. Genesee Community College, Conable Technology Building, 1 College Rd Batavia. Free. 343-0055 x6616. dsutherland@genesee.edu. Serve, Honor, Support Symposium. 8 a.m. R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center Building,