Michael Weinstein

Having stumbled upon a home video in which an elderly man explored his spacious and wooded backyard, Laura Mackin proceeded to take it apart into frames, turn some of them into dull color photographs and compose new images by superimposition and seaming, often retaining snippets of the date and time record from the film. The result is surrealism lite, in which we contemplate sights like a dresser sitting on a patch of sparse grass that is topped by a large mirror reflecting some trees with tangled branches soaring into the sky. The combination of studied banality and odd displacements and juxtapositions that mark Mackin's series provokes a meditative mood--one that is persistently undercut by a mild eeriness that leads to a sense that we have gotten too close to the heavy meaninglessness and dreadful inertness that lurks behind the securities of a well ordered everyday life.

Laura Mackin shows at Contemporary Art Workshop, 542 West Grant, (773)472-4004, through June 23.

(2006-05-23)

Also by Michael Weinstein

Tip of the Week
Gifted with a thoughtful and sensitive eye, curator Aaron Ott has brought together four very different photographers, all of whom are more concerned with space itself than with what it contains
(2006-05-16)

Tip of the Week
As scientific instruments penetrate ever deeper into matter, photography proceeds apace, capturing the dizzyingly complex worlds with their ragged geometries that appear at vanishing points in space within split seconds
(2006-05-09)

Tip of the Week
Some of the most evocative architectural photography--and that is not a contradiction in terms--is on display in this group show of seven straight black-and-white practitioners who translate their stolid subjects into instigators of emotion
(2006-05-02)

Tip of the Week
For this ambitious group show, curator Karen Irvine brings together some of the most advanced and challenging contemporary video and photographic art under the concept of dislocation
(2006-04-25)

Tip of the Week
(2006-04-18)

Tip of the Week
(2006-04-11)

Tip of the Week
(2006-03-28)

Tip of the Week
(2006-03-21)

Tip of the Week
(2006-03-14)

Tip of the Week
(2006-03-07)

Tip of the Week
(2006-02-28)

Tip of the Week
(2006-02-21)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment