EXHIBITIONS
KEN FANDELL, Part II: Until It Doesn't Matter
IMAGES | BIOGRAPHY | PRESS RELEASE
April 18 - May 31, 2008
TONY WIGHT GALLERY is pleased to present the second installment of a two-part exhibition by Ken Fandell, his fourth solo project with the gallery. Part II: Until It Doesn’t Matter is comprised of a large-scale photographic wall piece, an appropriated photograph, a collage, and a photograph of an equation in a sketchbook. Each element relates to an ongoing contemplation of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, a million-second-long exposure announced by astronomers in 2004 that offers “the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind”. The existence of this image serves as a platform for Fandell’s continued engagement with the disorienting psychological effects of considering the quotidian alongside the grandeur of time and space. Part II of Fandell’s project deals with issues of repetition, saturation and disintegration through extremes of scale, time and scrutiny.
The focal point of Fandell’s exhibition is a vast photographic montage called Until it Doesn’t Matter. This montage is a multiple exposure image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field replicated and layered more than a thousand times. At this stage, the image begins to form a white field and obliterate itself, suggesting that through sustained expansion, the universe will eventually conclude in either epiphany or critical mass. I Swear to God That’s Me is an appropriated photograph that examines the process of looking at an image and trying to identify a single person within of a crowd of 40,000 people. A third piece, Evermore, is a collage of interlocking images of the Hubble Telescope. Evermore hints at what may be overlooked despite infinite selfexamination. The final piece in Part II: Until it Doesn’t Matter is a photograph of an equation that represents the entire area of the sky that is not visible through the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Titled Twelve Million Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Thirteen Millionth, this photograph protracts the questions raised through Fandell’s two-part scrutiny of the limits and possibilities of technological advance in light of phenomena, uncertainty, and factors which may always remain unknowable.
KEN FANDELL (American, b. 1971) has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Defining Moments in Photography, 1967- 2007 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, (Chicago, IL); In Words: The Art of Language at The University of Delaware (Newark, DE); Antennae at the Houston Center for Photography (Houston, TX). His work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, New York and is currently hanging in the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. He has received awards from Artadia and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Part I: The Most Important Picture Ever at Tony Wight Gallery, Time is of the Essence: Contemporary Landscape at the Asheville Art Museum (Asheville, NC), Dropped Frames at Elk Gallery (NY), and a group exhibition at MIxed Greens (NY). He lives and works in Chicago.