Rock n Roll in Ohio

Presented by Tiffin University’s Diane Kidd Gallery of Art October 5—November 9, 2016

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Rock n Roll in Ohio celebrates music in our state through photography. These five artists investigate the moments that make live performance a unique and vivid experience. These photographs show us the power of music.

Ohio has long had an important role in contemporary music. Many musicians come from the state, including Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Marilyn Manson, Dean Martin and Tracy Chapman.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has had 10 million visitors since it opened in 1995.

This catalog presents portfolios of the five photographers and an essay by Dr. James Rovira, Associate Professor of English Literature.

Lee Fearnside Director of the Diane Kidd Gallery

Rock n Roll in Ohio October 5–November 9, 2016 Diane Kidd Gallery Tiffin University Tiffin, OH

Gallery Director: Lee Fearnside Exhibit Co-Curators: Lee Fearnside & James Rovira Catalog Design: Nikka Geiermann

www.tiffin.edu/dianekiddgallery

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CONTENT

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Introduction

Anja Proudfoot

Taylor Fickes

Emma Sipes

Ray Ford Jr.

Nik Vechery

Anja Proudfoot, Audience’s Turn, 2015

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INTRODUCTION

and European literature and art taking place over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at somewhat different times in different places—and argues that these intersections aren’t coincidental.

William Blake is perhaps the greatest Romantic poet for the rock and roll generation, with musicians such as Dylan, the Fugs, and the Doors making reference to his poetry in the 1960s, Daniel Amos in the 1980s, Patti Smith in the 1990s, and the Martha Redbone Roots Project as recently as 2012. Perhaps this isThis musical interest in Blake is unsurprising as Blake first sang his poems at dinner parties, drawing the attention of musical scholars of his day who notated his original tunes. But Wordsworth and Coleridge make their appearances as well, Coleridge most famously in Iron Maiden’s 1980’s adaptation of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” It’s not enough to demonstrate the influence of Romantic literature on Rrock and Rroll, however, which is obvious and everywhere, but to demonstrate that Rrock and Rroll is the form that Romanticism has taken in the late twentieth century. When the Doors quote Blake, they’re not quoting a distantn influence but a fellow traveler.

by James Rovira

So what is Romanticism, and what does it mean to call Rrock and Rroll a modern expression of Romanticism? The term “Romantic” as a classification system of European literature and art began in the eighteenth century, but attempts to coherently define the word failed repeatedly, culminating in Lovejoy’s famous PMLA essay “On the Discrimination of Romanticisms” (1924). Lovejoy eventually arrived at the famous conclusion that the “word ‘romantic’ has come to mean so many things that, by itself, it means nothing. It has ceased to perform the function of a verbal sign.” As we approach the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Lovejoy’s essay, it remains the most compelling and definitive statement of the problem.

Taylor Fickes, Saosin, 2015

Early in 2014 my daughter had an application deadline coming up for enrollment in the Art program at the University of Central Florida.

She needed a DSLR camera to take photographs for a portfolio.

I was living in Columbus, Ohio at the time, so I thought the fastest way to get her a camera was to purchase one at a local Best Buy for pickup at a store near her in Florida. When I got there, Taylor Fickes and her friend spent an hour talking to me about cameras and on the phone with Best Buy in Florida making sure everything was in stock and ready for her to pick up the next day. In the end, I was just as impressed with their knowledge of the field of photography as I was with their customer service. Not long after, I checked out Taylor’s rock photography and was also impressed by her work as well. Her photographs integrate subject and setting in a way that captures the intense emotional energy of the best rock concerts, presenting living subjects in a way that places the viewer in the scene. Her subjects may be frozen in time, but her photography is living in it effects. I thought she should be shooting for Rolling Stone.

My next reaction was annoyance at Taylor’s significant talent going unrecognized mixed with a desire I had to produce something

dedicated to the state of Ohio, the place where I’d been living for the last six years. What struck me the most about Ohio was the number of bands that came through the state, not to mention the presence of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. Ohio has become the capital of Rrock in a way comparable to Nashville being the capital of Ccountry. So I met Lee, told her about Taylor’s work, and asked her if she would be interested in having an exhibit at Tiffin University’s Diane Kidd Art Gallery dedicated to Ohio Rrock and Rroll. She loved the idea, and Taylor did too when I spoke to her about it, so we started moving forward.

From there the idea snowballed. I solicited ideas for an honors class about the intersections of Rrock and Romanticism to an English Romanticism listserv and received such enthusiastic responses that I solicited essays for an edited anthology, Rock and Romanticism.

This anthology explores the intersections between Rrock and Rroll and literary Romanticism—a movement within British, American,

photography and its relationship to previous art forms. How does rock photography resemble the work of different artists since the Renaissance? Not only how, but why? Taylor’s color photographs are reminiscent to me at times of the art of Blake’s mythological works, such as the photograph in which stage lighting becomes a celestial starry field against which (or to whom?) the musician performs. TSimilarly, the way Emma Sipes isolates her subjects against a black background similarly reminds me of the work of Rembrandt. Anja Proudfoot’s photographs emphasize the intimate details of performance, and by doing so, like Romantic poetry, emphasizes the individual. Nik Vechery captures the subject in motion in a way that stresses moments of intense feelingemotion, while Ray Ford’s black and white hip-hop photographs capture similar effects in a more documentary style.

All of these photographers move in varying degrees beyond documentary photography into the realm of imaginative art, where the transformation of the subject through photography might mirror the transformation of the listener through music. Are these similarities coincidental, or do they reflect a renewal of the view of the subject—a way of perceiving people creating and performing within the world—that is evolving again in response to societal pressures that have existed before? However we choose to answer this question, we can still appreciate the ongoing cycle of creative responses to creative works that inspire: literature inspiring art and music, music inspiring photography, and exhibits that celebrate this cycle.

Most recently, Robert Sayre and Michael Löwy in “Figures of Romantic Anti-Capitalism” (1984), later revised and expanded to book length in Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity (2001), take as their starting point definitions of Romanticism that understand it as “opposition to capitalism in the name of pre-capitalist values,” such as the values inherent in Medieval romance. They proceed to further define Romanticism as “an essential component of modern culture” that is a “collective mental structure” inextricably bound up with the Enlightenment, one characterized by a sense of loss and a longing for unity. Sayre’s and Löwy’s argument allows Romanticism to continue into the present in ways that might take on a specific, musical transformation in the period following World War II. Unsurprisingly, the conditions surrounding European Romanticism’s development in the late eighteenth century are eerily similar to the conditions of the late twentieth century: widespread global trade fostered by European colonial enterprises earlier in the eighteenth century led to increasing conflicts around the world and in Europe, culminating in political revolution in the Americas and then in France that were followed by pan-European warfare from 1792 to 1815.

Similarly, the twentieth century saw two world wars followed by the rise of global capitalism and its partner, global communism, and then the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union as world superpowers, so that by the onset of the 1950s, Europe and the United States were both poised for an emotionally intense form of Romantic anticapitalism: Rrock and Rroll.

The exhibit Rock n Roll in Ohio represents a starting point for the extension of these questions past literature and music to rock Anja Proudfoot, Collective Soul, 2016

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TAYLOR FICKES

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City Lights, 2015

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Suicide Silence, 2015

I was raised in a musically-inclined family and have loved photography since I was young.

My dad introduced me to both of the worlds, and I decided to combine them. I love capturing a moment that otherwise would be lost in time. Concerts give a lot of comfort to people in the scene that I work in. It’s important to remind them of that comfort throughout the everyday tasks, and that’s what I hope to do by taking these photos.

Contentions, 2015

Atreyu, 2015

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Up for Grabs ,2013

Arrival, 2013

RAY FORD JR. Before I take a picture, there is a voice in my head that always asks,why? why? why? why?

This three letter word serves as the footing of reason in my picture taking process and it constantly urges me to negotiate why? why? to what end closing the shutter on a particular moment may bring, socially, culturally, and politically. The why in me is why? why? most satisfied when I shoot candidly, where I can feel and maneuver my way, however voyeuristically, through a setting,

The Stage, 2013

scene, event, or moment without compromising the subject’s usual-ness. By adding composition to my urge to feel, I arrive at my photo’ing purpose.

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Show Time 4, 2013

Show Time 2, 2013

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ANJA PROUDFOOT

I was trained in fine art photography instead of journalistic photography, so I tend to want to focus on the small and abstract details of performances. I grew up listening rock music and was introduced to photography at a young age. It was almost inevitable for the artist in me to want to capture the power of music in a photograph as I have experienced it for so much of my life. After my first concert I was enamored with the amount of emotion, intricacies, and work that went into live performances, which lead to my drive to capture it all. I feel that the tiny moments in a performance are what build the entire show. The details add so much to shows and can often go unnoticed.

I’m always looking for the split second moments of the smile on the singer’s face as the crowd sings back, the snarl on the bassist’s face when the bass line is just right, the fans singing the words like that’s the only thing they know, and when the guitarist can’t help but jump along to the energy of the crowd.

I take these photographs to capture the brilliance, energy, and love of music.

Collective Soul, 2016

Dogleg, 2016

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3OH!3, 2016

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Sing it! , 2015

Sum 41, 2016

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EMMA SIPES

Fable, 2015

Afroblue, 2015

When I was at Tiffin University, I had the opportunity to capture images of students as they performed in different groups, as well as many guest artists. I enjoy capturing people’s love for music and performance.

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Jazzin’, 2014

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Laces, 2015

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NIK VECHERY Right page from top to bottom: Tweens—Cincinnati, OH,2015

As a concert photographer, I strive to both document a musician in their element and imbue the essence of what is heard in their music, transforming it into a still image.

Arlo McKinley—Cincinnati, OH,2015 X__X—Cleveland, OH,2015 Obnox—Cleveland, OH,2015

It is this exploration of mutating sound to vision that keeps me coming back to these concert halls and small rock clubs to photograph bands that most likely will not survive to record a single note. Their dedication to making music is why I photograph. I take on the role of documentarian of these small scenes with a creative eye so that these bands’ moment in time is not forgotten.

Ian Hubbard—Drums, 2015

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Counter Intuits—Cleveland, OH, 2015

Guided By Voices—Dayton, OH,2015

Tweens—Cincinnati, OH, 2015

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Ray Ford Jr., Intermission, 2013 Emma Sipes, Mic Stand, 2014

Anja Proudfoot, Collective Soul, 2016

Nik Vechery, Jesse Rinebolt, 2015

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Taylor Fickes, Fall Out Boy, 2016

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About the Diane Kidd Gallery Through the leadership of Diane Kidd, the original Tiffin University Art Gallery opened in Franks Hall in 1994. From her initial vision, the gallery has grown to become the spacious and light-filled Diane Kidd Gallery of Art in the Hayes Center for the Arts. It is one of the finest exhibition spaces in the area, a drawing card for art lovers in northwest Ohio and beyond.

Above: Anja Proudfoot, Collective Soul, 2016

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Cover: Taylor Fickes, Atreyu, 2015