Domiciles 65
iHow does one tell a story about a house? Especially one that is unoccupied. Using my camera, I traveled through the present while channeling a past. Anecdotes from the Kanter family informed my path.
The residence, designed in 1963 by architect Arnold Schaffner (1913-1986), voices its own poetry with leitmotifs that include circles and winding paths, acute angles, reflections on windows and Zelda Werner’s plexiglass sculptures. My lens refracts the Kanters’ collections of art and furniture, as well as their recollections of a life there.
Many of the images unlock individual and collective memories of the family. And then there are others that draw on my own curatorial eye, such as the space between a Robert Motherwell and a Jackson Pollock.
By presenting my photographs in diptychs, I pair atonal and complementary interpretations of light, form, materials and seasons in this home set on Lake Michigan’s shore. This is like the montage of two Chinese characters that create a third meaning.
The diptychs were curated in collaboration with Janis Kanter. Our time working together on several late fall afternoons brought another thread of stories and vistas.
One of the greatest challenges was sequencing the diptychs. It is like composing a visual score—music for the eyes. I printed the images and laid them out on an eight-foot-long table, on which they sat for several weeks. By serendipity, one day, in one hour, the sequence took form. The artist’s cut can be viewed in its entirety in the upcoming publication of 65.
The sequence for the website was done in conjunction with Paula Gillen.
Commissioned by the Kanter Family for the Hyde Park Art Center's 2008 Not Just Another Pretty Face.
How does one tell a story about a house? Especially one that is unoccupied. Using my camera, I traveled through the present while channeling a past. Anecdotes from the Kanter family informed my path.
The residence, designed in 1963 by architect Arnold Schaffner (1913-1986), voices its own poetry with leitmotifs that include circles and winding paths, acute angles, reflections on windows and Zelda Werner’s plexiglass sculptures. My lens refracts the Kanters’ collections of art and furniture, as well as their recollections of a life there.
Many of the images unlock individual and collective memories of the family. And then there are others that draw on my own curatorial eye, such as the space between a Robert Motherwell and a Jackson Pollock.
By presenting my photographs in diptychs, I pair atonal and complementary interpretations of light, form, materials and seasons in this home set on Lake Michigan’s shore. This is like the montage of two Chinese characters that create a third meaning.
The diptychs were curated in collaboration with Janis Kanter. Our time working together on several late fall afternoons brought another thread of stories and vistas.
One of the greatest challenges was sequencing the diptychs. It is like composing a visual score—music for the eyes. I printed the images and laid them out on an eight-foot-long table, on which they sat for several weeks. By serendipity, one day, in one hour, the sequence took form. The artist’s cut can be viewed in its entirety in the upcoming publication of 65.
The sequence for the website was done in conjunction with Paula Gillen.
