Alan Scarritt: Prism Break (Snowed In)

Alan Scarritt: Prism Break (Snowed In)

Being In Two Places At the Same Time

Tim Nye

Conceptual art is a visual medium. This

pulse between the tangible and the percep-

statement seems blindingly obvious if it

tual. In his photographic diptych, FLOW,

weren’t for the massive armies of artists out

the word “flow” is drawn on a sheet of

there that bore me silly, or worse don’t even

glass that is positioned in front of a spigot

engage my curiosity enough to explore

with water flowing from it. Two photos are

the feeble concept the artist attempts to

taken: one with the word flow in focus and

communicate. John Baldessari profoundly

a dreamy abstraction of the spigot in the

and profanely shares my concern for the

background. The second photo, obscures

fissure between image and concept. His

the word “flow,” focusing on the flowing

painting, EVERYTHING IS PURGED

water; the left and right strum a chord, the

FROM THIS PAINTING BUT ART, NO

echoes of a Gregorian Chant.

IDEAS HAVE ENTERED THIS WORK, using humor, wit and an unexpected

Scarritt’s synthesis of right and left triggers

graphic poetry, sews the gash of bad art.

a fission, rendering a perceptual awakening that is unlocked by rubbing your stomach

Alan Scarritt attacks the necessity of har-

and patting your head. Quantum Mechan-

mony between image and concept head on.

ics mathematically explain that given that

The brain’s left hemisphere, which enables

electrons are neither a particle nor a wave,

language, is activated in equal measure to

they are thereby both a particle (thus limit-

the right hemisphere, which provides visual

ed in space) and a wave (thus spread out in

and spatial functions. The ephemeral verse

space), the seeming impossibility of matter

that the work attains all stems from the col-

being in two places at once. This is nature,

lision and energy exchange between image

and art is a mirror for nature; it can be

and language. The aesthetic means- sculp-

dead and alive simultaneously, image and

ture, photography, painting, sound, video-

language constructed as one.

Present Tense 1995 Steel and mirror 42 x 26 x 20 in.

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Home of the Jaguar 1998 Steel, mirror and tape 48 x 60 x 60 in.

Home of the Jaguar contains several pyramids in tandem with Scarritt’s adoration for the number three. His interest in pyramids developed from making photograms, where light would form a triangle. The title references a pyramid in Southern Mexico which contained another pyramid-shaped room that houses an image of a symbolic jaguar.

Mirrors, which are used frequently in Scarritt’s work, help complete the piece.

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Jaguar Traces I, II, III 2013 Digital print 18 x 24 in.

In the photographs installed alongside Home of the Jaguar are the Jaguar Traces, Scarritt traced the sculpture with a flashlight, capturing the result by camera with a 30-second exposure.

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A Cypress Tree in the Courtyard (To Brancusi) 2013 Steel and mirror 36 x 36 x 18.5 in.

In A Cypress Tress in the Courtyard (To Brancusi), Scarritt introduces one of his many odes, in this piece it is to Constantin Brancusi. If you hover over the sculpture and look down into the mirror, it becomes a portal for an inverse endless column, much like Brancusi’s that held up the sky.

The title comes from a koan, a Chinese story or statement meant to help progress in Zen practice, thereby lending a meditative quality to the piece.

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It’s Just a Temporary Thing 2010 Graphite on black foamcore 17 x 20 in.

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View from Above 1998 Latex, powered graphite in acrylic mediumon wood 16.5 x 17 x 7 in.

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To Heisenberg 2013 Digital print, steel and mirror 29 x 42 x 30.5 in.

To Lacan 2013 Digital photo, steel, mirror and ink on paper 29 x 42 x 30.5 in.

To Heisenberg and To Lacan are photographic diptychs. In To Lacan, Scarritt made a paper Borromean knot, famously made up of three rings that form a Brunnian link: if one ring is broken, or cut, they fall apart. The ring formation was used in the crest of the Italian Borromeo family. French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan grew obsessed with the mathematical configuration devising that it was a perfect model for the brain, with the three parts representing the real, imaginary and symbolic: a larger theme of Scarritt’s exhibition. Here, Scarritt twisted it further and made each ring from a Mobius strip—a surface that only has one side- building up the illusory quality of the sculpture.

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Youth II 2013 Mirror, photograph, tape, steel and charcoal Dimensions variable

Youth II features arcs drawn onto the wall making reference to the Plaster Pours wherein Alan would walk around a room and trace large circles out in plaster. The small mirror on the floor fulfills the likeness to an hourglass. The upper component is the larger future pouring into the smaller past representing youth, which is further underscored by the inclusion of playful wiring from a dartboard.

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Prism Break 2013 Glass and acrylic 12 x 54 x 12 in.

Prism Break, the exhibition’s namesake, is again an ode to three and to semiotics. The prism-shaped sculpture contains three words, the first phrase to stand out being a titillating sexual act. A second reading references whistleblower Edward Snowden: his job was to blow the cover.

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Prism Break 2013 Graphite and charcoal on paper 26 x 40 in.

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Prism (Window) 2013 Ink on photograph 25 x 36.5 in.

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To Kluge 1990 Mixed media 22 x 25.75 in.

Scarritt makes reference to another figure in history with To Kluge. Kluge is Alexander Kluge, a lawyer and filmmaker largely responsible for launching German New Wave Cinema. Kluge was interested in intertextuality, finding that it will be different based on medium. Here, Scarritt again chose several media; the background is culled from an interview with Kluge in October Magazine.

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Kepler’s Book (Sol) 1995 Ink and photograph on paper 14 x 17.75 in.

Untitled (Cut) 1997 Photograph on aluminum 15.5 x 22.5 in.

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And Then One Day...

2003 Graphite and glue on aluminum with candle 12.75 x 10.375 x 7 in.

And Then One Day‌ is an intimate version of his earlier performance piece, Scarecrow.

In it, he sprawled this text, which he wrote, onto a giant mirror within a room. Opposite to the mirror, his friend Todd Colburn played guitar, his likeness reflecting onto the text on the opposing wall. Scarritt then set up a projector to film the images in the mirror. That filmed image was projected next to Colburn playing in reality. The room then contained the reflected image, the filmed image and the real Colburn alongside each other. To end the performance, Scarritt smashed the mirror, making all the images disappear, and simultaneously Colburn went silent.

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Field 2013 Steel, wire and lead 13 x 10 x 9 in.

First Photogram (Enso) 1981 Black & white photograph 8 x 10 in.

Scarritt’s First Photogram (Enso) is an early example of his interest in circles and spirals.

Described as the first photogram that really registered for the artist, Scarritt took a small lens and traced the burnt circle (his hand is visible over it). This too relates to his incredible Plaster Pours, where two large circles made out of poured plaster would connect and/or overlap. In his photograms with water, he would eventually take two sheets and trace his finger in a circle pattern in the water over one and in the other, plunk his finger as if to dot the water creating rings of circles. Much like patting your head, and rubbing your belly, the two circles would eventually intercept.

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Standard Wait 2013 Mirror, styrofoam and acrylic 48 x 48 x 11 in.

Scarritt explains that Standard Wait was inspired by a piece of twine rooted in art history, which he pays homage to in the title Silent C (For M.D) (page 28). The M.D., of course, is Marcel Duchamp and the work is With Hidden Noise (1968), a small sculpture of a ball of twine pressed between two brass plates. Duchamp’s friend, Walter Arensberg, hid an unknown object within the twine.

If moved or shaken, the ball will produce a gentle rattle. Standard Wait, Scarritt’s illusory sculpture contains a ball resembling that of twine and sandwiches it between two mirrors. The result is infinite partial circles made up of the reflection of the ball, like cloned DNA or linked atoms. The title, Standard Wait, references the speed of light: the speed in which the ball’s image bounces back and forth in the mirror. Later, as Scarritt grew more interested in re-imaging and mirrors, he played with photographing the reflection; in each Witness Device (page 29) and Silent C (For M.D.), he includes images of Standard Wait.

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Silent C. (for M.D.) 1997 Photograph on aluminum and mirror 19.75 x 22.25 in.

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Trickster 2013 Bluestone on digital photo mounted on foamcore 25 x 37 in.

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Witness Device (Standard Wait) 2007 Steel, mirror and photograph 8 x 14 x 11 in.

Witness Device (Flow) 2013 Steel, mirror and ink on photo 8 x 14 x 11 in.

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Beacon Falls 2013 Bluestone, graphite and tape on paper 46 x 42 x 40 in.

With three equal components, Beacon Falls resembles an unfolded prism. Scarritt recently moved to Beacon, NY where he maintains a studio on the rushing falls. Inspired by the moving water, Scarritt thought of notions of gravity’s pull while pressing the Beacon-found rocks, known as blue stones, into paper. In Gravity Traces (page 34), he pushed that pull further and made a pendulum with melted wax that spun over the sheet of blue stone. Both that large portion of stone and the rocks in Asteroid Earrings (page 36) had once been used to build bathroom stall walls in the Beacon area. Here, Scarritt kept the original hardware for two dangling sculptures, in a work that is again made up of three components.

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Gravity Traces 2013 Wax on Bluestone 26 x 41.5 x 1 in.

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Asteroid Earrings 2013 Bluestone, wire, hardware and graphite on paper 14 x 14 x 4 in.

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Digital catalog created in conjunction with Alan Scarritt: Prisim Break (Snowed In) September 19 — October 26, 2013 Photography: Kaylan George and Kyle LaMar Design: Kyle LaMar Editor: Danielle Forest

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