Jeff Mermelstein, Statue (‘Double Check’ by Seward Johnson), New York, 11 September 2001 (detail), 2001. Chromogenic print, 22 3/8 x 28 3/8”. Private Collection.
Opening February 8 at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver, Canada, a Handful of Dust: from the Cosmic to the Domestic, offers a rare opportunity to view a remarkable diversity of photographs from the last 100 years, focusing on the theme of dust – from aerial reconnaissance and forensics, to conceptual art and abstraction. More than 30 artists and photographers are featured, some of which include Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Louise Albin-Guillot, Walker Evans, Scott McFarland, Gerhard Richter, Mona Kuhn, Sophie Ristelhueber, Eva Sternram, Jeff Wall, and Nick Waplington.
Curator David Campany proposes a speculative history of the past century, beginning with an iconic photograph by legendary artist Man Ray picturing a sheet of glass belonging to Marcel Duchamp covered in dust. It is humble yet enigmatic. It is a document, and an artwork, one that is realist and abstract, a still life and a landscape, and perhaps even a performance. The exhibition asks, what if dust is really a key to the ensuing decades? Why do we dislike it? Dust must be kept well away from camera equipment, but it is deeply photogenic. There is something universal about dust: we come from it, go to it, and create it daily. Inevitable and unruly, dust is the enemy of the modern order, its repressed other, its nemesis.
a Handful of Dust: from the Cosmic to the Domestic is on view at the Polygon Gallery through April 28, 2019. For more information, visit thepolygon.ca/a-Handful.
