fotoplay: on the horizon 2

Gallery 2 of the Fotoplay Invitational includes works that suggest (one with more subtlety than the other) that What’s on the Horizon is entirely up to you, the viewer. It’s a matter of choice. In the work above, my friend Nina once again used an x-acto knife as her primary tool. I’m taken by the idea that each door one might choose to open is a door that opens to a place defined by a color.

Would any of us knowingly choose to open a door that leads into a world of deep dark black?

If you’ve been following this blog, you might have guessed that the work above was created by our philosopher friend, John. In his brief email to me, John made a point to say that he created this work (and the last) by using press type.

Unlike typesetting-via-computer, those wonderful, virtually defunct sheets of press type require lots of time, as one must patiently transfer each individual letter onto the page, one-by-one. I’m not a fan of having to know (so that I might “get it”) the ins and outs of how an artist has created their work. But I agree with John that knowing he used press type does somehow deepen my experience of looking at his work, imagining those ideas, those words, those letters, individually pressed into place.

Do you agree that we are always looking out at the world through a filter of our own perceptions? If the power of a sunset or sunrise can’t transport us beyond our limited world view, then what possibly could? And in invoking the name of this blog, has John concluded that a sense of playfulness can transform What’s On the Horizon?