LarryCwikPhotographicFineArt
1011AngstGalleryEmpire,Liberty,AndGlassTotems
LARRY CWIK – ARTIST STATEMENT – TOTEM SERIES – OCTOBER 2011
After working for 15+ years in both single image photography and in Super 8 film, I visited and was profoundly inspired by the beauty and power of the Totem Poles of the first peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast. The poles inspired me to begin arranging my photographic images in a stacked manner to allude to a story or theme. Some use symbols or archetypes. The arrangement is intuitive, from my subconscious, like the individual images themselves.
Most of the 13 works in the exhibit have images from the Pacific Northwest, my home since 1982. The northwest has directly inspired this series.
Most of the works have a narrative. Totem 28 (Memory) speaks of memory, with the hand of my mother, now 82, with Alzheimer’s, in the center, a “memory machine” in the Alzheimer’s wing of an assisted living facility in Hillsboro at the top, and an ancient tree in Beaverton at the bottom. Totem 44 (Bellflower) has two images in an ethereal fog, one of a house, one of a forest. In between is an image of a beautiful but poisonous flower. In Totem 47 (Page) the top image shows my hand holding pages of text about artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), one of the last two living original surrealists, who inspired me. I enjoyed talking by phone with her each year from 2001 to 2011. Above the page with the text is a cloud reminiscent of a flame. The center image shows a pastoral Oregon scene of grass and high clouds symbolizing peace/serenity. The lower image shows the light of the sun breaking through dense artistic clouds. Totem 24 (Glass) has symbols of travel (at the top), dining (in the center), and nightlife (at the bottom). Totem 27 (Liberty) alludes to privacy in our contemporary society. A symbol of liberty is at the top, a symbol of light and possible surveillance is in the center, and a symbol of government is at the bottom. Totem 6 (Family) has a young family on the beach in the center image, a family of driftwood arranged as an installation at the top, and what may be a vegetative family as the bottom image. Totem 26 (Empire) is a socio-economic commentary and shows a parking sign, a jumbo jet in flight, and a homeless person pushing a grocery cart piled high with bottles and cans. Totem 23 (Balloons) has three images that together comment on urban density and life. Totem 49 (Perch) shows a dog looking forward peacefully on a beach, a bin of fish destined to be food, and a fisherman on a jetty above a driftwood piece with the design of a face, with the three together commenting on life and transcendence. Totem 11 (Helmet), the only horizontal Totem in the exhibit, has three images obtained in Portland, united not only by a compositional sphere in each of the three images, but to me through its representations of land (the helmet), sky (the clouds), and water (a satellite dish atop a boat on the Willamette River).
In 2008, I visited Alert Bay, B.C., a major center of Totem Pole building, to do research for this series. Totem 45 (Boat) is comprised of three images taken there. The top image, part of a boat, looks like a smiling porpoise or dolphin. The bottom image, a life boat, seems like a large-eyed fish. The center image appears to have a spirit figure hovering near a ladder in the midst of boat rigging. The three are all nautical images, but can signify different things to different people.
While the works in the series often have a narrative, I keep the titles short. I want the works to be open to a viewer's own interpretation. Similarly, a Totem Pole's narrative is open to interpretation even if its creator had a specific narrative in mind when designing/carving/painting the Pole.
1011AngstGalleryEmpire,Liberty,AndGlassTotems
LARRY CWIK – ARTIST STATEMENT – TOTEM SERIES – OCTOBER 2011
After working for 15+ years in both single image photography and in Super 8 film, I visited and was profoundly inspired by the beauty and power of the Totem Poles of the first peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast. The poles inspired me to begin arranging my photographic images in a stacked manner to allude to a story or theme. Some use symbols or archetypes. The arrangement is intuitive, from my subconscious, like the individual images themselves.
Most of the 13 works in the exhibit have images from the Pacific Northwest, my home since 1982. The northwest has directly inspired this series.
Most of the works have a narrative. Totem 28 (Memory) speaks of memory, with the hand of my mother, now 82, with Alzheimer’s, in the center, a “memory machine” in the Alzheimer’s wing of an assisted living facility in Hillsboro at the top, and an ancient tree in Beaverton at the bottom. Totem 44 (Bellflower) has two images in an ethereal fog, one of a house, one of a forest. In between is an image of a beautiful but poisonous flower. In Totem 47 (Page) the top image shows my hand holding pages of text about artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), one of the last two living original surrealists, who inspired me. I enjoyed talking by phone with her each year from 2001 to 2011. Above the page with the text is a cloud reminiscent of a flame. The center image shows a pastoral Oregon scene of grass and high clouds symbolizing peace/serenity. The lower image shows the light of the sun breaking through dense artistic clouds. Totem 24 (Glass) has symbols of travel (at the top), dining (in the center), and nightlife (at the bottom). Totem 27 (Liberty) alludes to privacy in our contemporary society. A symbol of liberty is at the top, a symbol of light and possible surveillance is in the center, and a symbol of government is at the bottom. Totem 6 (Family) has a young family on the beach in the center image, a family of driftwood arranged as an installation at the top, and what may be a vegetative family as the bottom image. Totem 26 (Empire) is a socio-economic commentary and shows a parking sign, a jumbo jet in flight, and a homeless person pushing a grocery cart piled high with bottles and cans. Totem 23 (Balloons) has three images that together comment on urban density and life. Totem 49 (Perch) shows a dog looking forward peacefully on a beach, a bin of fish destined to be food, and a fisherman on a jetty above a driftwood piece with the design of a face, with the three together commenting on life and transcendence. Totem 11 (Helmet), the only horizontal Totem in the exhibit, has three images obtained in Portland, united not only by a compositional sphere in each of the three images, but to me through its representations of land (the helmet), sky (the clouds), and water (a satellite dish atop a boat on the Willamette River).
In 2008, I visited Alert Bay, B.C., a major center of Totem Pole building, to do research for this series. Totem 45 (Boat) is comprised of three images taken there. The top image, part of a boat, looks like a smiling porpoise or dolphin. The bottom image, a life boat, seems like a large-eyed fish. The center image appears to have a spirit figure hovering near a ladder in the midst of boat rigging. The three are all nautical images, but can signify different things to different people.
While the works in the series often have a narrative, I keep the titles short. I want the works to be open to a viewer's own interpretation. Similarly, a Totem Pole's narrative is open to interpretation even if its creator had a specific narrative in mind when designing/carving/painting the Pole.