The images are presented in grid formation as a mode of typological presentation which invites the comparative response from the viewer. Mounted on di bond aluminum, the works sit off the wall. Each UFO is presented as a single image which hovers in a dark, psychological space allowing comparison related to the aesthetics draw of psychedelia and minimalism. The viewer is also being able to engage in identifying the prosaic nature of the artifacts used to create the form of each UFO.
Creation date
2011-07-01Material type
art originalLanguage
engNotes
UFOs and Flying Saucers: quasi-science, enigma, foolish fantasy, hoax, alien visitations, encounters and abductions, sublime technologies, fleeting visions and luminous orbs suspended in the silver halides of the photographic print. As a cultural phenomenon the true nature of the UFO is complex and illusive. Its hallucinatory manifestations giving shape to something, like dark matter, which cannot be seen directly, a presence which infers intangible forces at work. Of photographs and fakes: a genre of staged realties and darkroom deviations - spectral aberrations, soft focus, double exposures and chemical stains. An infinite number of frozen moments from the inevitable earth bound trajectories of every hubcap that was ever thrown before sky and lens. A seductive vision that wove its way through my childhood obsession with the night sky and the vicarious satisfaction and inevitable disillusion that came from faking such images myself. "As a boy I stood gazing up and out the small windows of a gloomy flat with my back to the raucous debris of family turmoil, my eyes open onto the patches of serene darkness in the midnight sky visible beyond the roof tops. A simple ludicrously inadequate camera sat ready…." Folly by Edward Colless, (from which this series takes its name and pays homage).Publication classification
J1 Major original creative workCopyright notice
2011, The CreatorExtent
Presented in a group exhibition titled, Sky Lab: FRom Where You Stand. Folly UFO is an installation of 12 photographic images, printed on metallic paper and mounted on di bond aluminum.Publisher
Stephen McLaughlan GalleryPlace of publication
Level 8. Room 16 at the Nicholas Building. 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne, 3000
