This exhibition is located in Engelhard Hall 1st Floor lobby at Rutgers University-Newark, 190 University Ave, Newark NJ 07102
Reception Thursday, October 20 5-7pm
Curated by Shlomit Dror
In this photographic series titled Garden State, the artist Ira Wagner explores the industrial landscape of New Jersey. Documenting different areas familiar to many commuters passing the Garden-State, these isolated places become remote from both our consciousness and body. In these photographs, Wagner captures factories, warehouses, abandon sites, public facilities, roads and bridges, seeking representations of development, decline and renewal. His photographs possess a spectral, unexpected beauty of industrial zones and desolate scenes, emphasizing the man-made altered landscape, where steel, smoke, and monumental structures dominate the composition, yet absent of human presence. The light conditions appear soft and hazy, conjuring a sense of mystery and melancholy that is nevertheless romantic. In these carefully composed photographs, familiar objects and sceneries take on their own shape, evoking a surreal impression, such as the workGoethals Bridge, recalling De Chirico’s metaphysical landscapes and eerie cityscapes. Wagner’s photographic recording of the Garden-State follow the tradition of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s typology of industrial archeology, and can also be seen as an extension to Robert Smithson’s 1967The Monuments of Passaic, where crumbling structures and machineries he photographed, were regarded and treated as art installations. Each of Wagner’s images are carefully produced, with great attention given to angles and lighting, underscoring both their documentary and fictional qualities.
This exhibition was made possible by funding from Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s Seed Grant Initiative.
http://artgallery.newark.rutgers.edu/exhibitions/re-made-garden-ira-wagner/
