"Fluids" Pinhole and Details
In 2007 on my first visit to Japan I was invited by John Einarsen to attend a pinhole photography exhibition in Kyoto. This event sparked my interest to try out pinhole photography. Not long thereafter John authored an article in Kyoto Journal #69 about a town in the icy northern island of Hokkaido named Monbetsu (Calm River) that was promoting itself as the "slowest town in Japan." In 2008 the city museum hosted an exhibit on pinhole photography to support the town's new identity as a place not in a hurry. The idea of slowness as a theme for pinhole photography continues to intrigue me.
In 2008 I adapted my 4x5 field camera with a pinhole to photograph “Fluids,” a posthumously recreated happening by Allan Kaprow at sites around Los Angeles. I was interested in using a slow process to photograph an even slower process - melting ice. These installations were structures made of large blocks of ice that were then left to slowly melt, crash and crumble, ending in puddles. At the time this mini-series seemed like a failure. The prescribed recipe of sodium sulfite solution for clearing the Polaroid 4 x 5 negatives was too weak. However, in retrospect I like the rough look.
I was able to visit four sites where Fluids was installed: LACMA, MOCA, Otis in Westchester, and Angel’s Gate in San Pedro. In addition to the pinhole work, I also photographed details of the ice structures with a digital camera. Neither body of photos strikes me as being documentary. It’s not too useful as evidence or particularly descriptive of the sites. Consequently, I see them more as art, not about other art, but born from it. Still, I have hesitated to make these public. I offer them now as an homage and echo of Allan Kaprow’s “blurring of art and life.”
Pursuant to a legal document I signed with LACMA that allowed me access to document the happenings, I hereby acknowledge Allan Kaprow as the “creator of the subject matter” and grant LACMA and the other organizers “a nonexclusive, perpetual, royalty-free and worldwide license to use and reproduce some or all of my photographic documentation of the Approved Happening for exhibition, publication, and publicity purposes and for any and all Kaprow-related future purposes.”