Outside of the obvious “world’s biggest” aspects, it’s hard to describe what makes The Legacy Photo Project’s Great Picture so compelling. Like many other things who’s impact is governed by scale, The Great Picture really needs to be experienced directly. It’s on view at Art Center in the Wind Tunnel until September 29th. There’s an artists’ lecture taking place on September 20, from 7-9 PM, as well.
Above, The Great Picture, as installed at the Art Center College of Design Wind Tunnel – The most immediate and compelling aspect of the 130′ wide image is the obvious and painterly presence of roller tracks from the application of photo chemicals to the canvas. It’s somehow fitting that an image which has been marketed as a capstone to the era of analog photography was executed in a manner so blatantly primitive and experimental. The surreal nature of the immense image hanging in the giant space of te Wind Tunnel is made further dramatic be the presence of a bank of lights that oscillate between dim and bright. The effect of this is that the piece is constantly emerging from and then retreating into darkness, with each oscillation you loose your point of focus on the image and are forced into viewing it anew. I presume the low level of light has a lot to do with the longevity of the piece, and the changing level of light somehow brings something of value to it and heightens the drama involved.
The focus of the image is the horizon line. The presence of so much visual noise from the uneven application of chemical forces the viewer to have to work to discern the depth and complexity of the landscape that is captured in the image. At first all that’s visible is the presence of an obvious assembly of communications structures, bristling with antennae and other doo-dads, slightly to the left of center, along the horizon lines. After a few minutes of scanning the image, details become clear. radiating out from the center of the horizon line are a series of lines, which rapidly become recognizable as the markings of the runway that extends from the door of the hangar used as the camera obscura to produce the image. Off to the right side of the image, a slightly curving line reveals itself as a distant hillside.
Somehow this image manages to capture both the steel and concrete remains of the now abandoned air station, and the calm, soft landscape of Orange County. It is an unimaginably dramatic and gorgeous object, and my brief encounter with it last night wasn’t quite enough. I’m really going to have to make another visit, at a time when my experience isn’t contextualized by the presence of the mulling and murmuring crowd.
Above, detail of The Great Picture – This detail shot shows the variation in colour due to the uneven application of photo chemicals, as well as the image’s most obvious and discernible details, the control tower and an assortment of communications equipment.
Above – The six artists from the Legacy Photo Project. From left – Clayton Spada, Douglas McCulloh, Rob Johnson, Jacques Garnier, Mark Chamberlain, and Jerry Burchfield. Here they are accepting “The World’s Largest Certificate.”
Technorati Tags: art, photography, Art Center, The Legacy Photo Project, The Great Picture, El Toro, El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, camera obscura
