First installation...

Here is an installation that I did for a show on my old campus recently in collaboration with an old textiles instructor. The show ended over a month ago, so I am shamefully posting this - like every thing else I post here - quite a bit after the fact. The piece is a repeated pattern (flipped and mirrored) from a source photograph, printed on a laser printer and wheat pasted to the wall outside of a school building. So I give you Cable Cars and Butterflies, one of the few names that I have given a piece that I actually love if not entirely for its natural cadence. Ultimately, the piece ends up resembling a larger-than-life Rorschach test. With the exception of a select few individuals, I have chosen not to disclose the source image in an attempt to not focus the attention of the viewer. This may seem a bit dubious given the very leading title, though one could certainly acknowledge the title's intentional deception if they pay attention. In a way, the piece is about deception, putting something controversial in the faces of people without them realizing what they are looking .

Ideally, this is one of a series of (so far) at least four more. I am still in the process of experimenting with medium, though having the tiles printed with a foam board backing sounds oddly appealing if the price was not such an impeding factor.

Reality is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.

A series of shots as a part of a series that I have tentatively titled Reality Creates Itself...In Its Own Twisted Image. This is an abstracted look at how intrapersonal relationships shape our lives and our notions of "reality." Lofty and still in progress, in need of revision.

Aortic, matches my grey skin

In a state of hyper-mania, I took the last remaining bit of medical gauze that I had from a few years back when I accidentally sliced open the knuckles on my right hand with a packing blade and wrapped my face. I had my camera out for another set of pictures that I was working on (and let me tell you that setting up photographs with one eye completely bandaged is no easy task - so much for me ever getting an eye patch).


Not the most exciting picture, but it can be used as a mask for another project that I am slowly working on. Feeling it to be a little bit flat though, I chose to overlay some textures and mess with the blending options - something that I had previously only done in the context of textile work and never in photographic work.


Needless to say, I think I'm going to incorporate some more of the gauze into future shots, especially as I prepare to work on a medical-fetish-ish style shoot in the near future, inspired by the medical scares as well as a revisit of an old album by Skinny Puppy entitled VIVIsectVI, which I feel has some odd relevance today.

Beyond functionality

Oh how the hours I keep prevent me from being a functional human being.

21st Century Life

We seem to be living in an time where our own emotions and natural biological processes have become synthesized and mass marketed. Adverts on the television suggest that we need assistance in order to live functional lives, despite the adverse effects that we may encounter from their products. This product may cause nausea, but fear not...we have something to help you with that as well!

What ultimately becomes the most disturbing is the fact that we are aware of the pitfalls of our new (accepted) chemical dependencies, but we still make them routine. Maybe we all perceive the ends as justifying the means; maybe real emotions are not worth feeling and thus their chemical sublimation becomes a welcome gift instead of a hindrance.

The human condition is an outdated notion, full of contradiction.

Welcome to the era of the new Chemical Generation.

New Website

Welcome!

This is going to be my interim website until I feel comfortable getting a proper one up and working.

A lot of work that will be included tends to have quite a bit of social commentary. A very small portion has political commentary, something I very much try not to let dominate. Then of course there's a bit of "just for the hell of it" work that will trickle in here and there. There will be contextual writing included with some, but since I am admittedly not much of a writer, this will not be as frequent.

Note that all pictures included are reduced in size, but full-sized images are viewable by click.

Check back here for updates and new photographic work as I post them!

-MV