Like Thomas Demand, Oliver Boberg, James Casebere and Lori Nix,
Ross Sawyer Sawyers constructs models that he photographs as full-scale environments.
Demand’s are meticulous and devoid of oxygen. Boberg’s explore the homey banality of the ordinary. Casebere’s focuses on the ornate, often after a flood, and Nix’s are fantastical. Each manages to make worlds from doll-house stage sets.
Sawyers’ are constructed to look as if they are still under construction, and photographed as if they are melodies orchestrated with light.
Wrote Andrew Kozlowski in Art Papers, September/October, 2009:
These spaces recall unfinished housing developments and luxury condo projects abandoned by unscrupulous investors, ready to fall down at any moment.
In the untitled photo above, the floor becomes liquid at it meets the white scrim, which extends to a rectangle that appears to be three-dimensional at the top and flat at the bottom. A full moon casts its reflection on the blue water, bringing to mind the seascapes Arthur Dove.
More toying with art history. Above, James Turrell meets Wolfgang Laib meets Rothko.
Above, light wrapped and ready with nowhere to go.
At Platform Gallery through Nov. 28.
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