SUSAN BARNETT & MATTHEW MILLER @ Leica Gallery Los Angeles

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SUSAN BARNETT & MATTHEW MILLER @ Leica Gallery Los Angeles

November 3rd, 2014 by fstop

SUSAN BARNETT
NOT IN YOUR FACE
– with –
MATTHEW MILLER
JUDY’S INTERRUPTION
November 1st – December 7th, 2014

Susan Barnett’s love of t-shirts began in the Seventies when she was known for silk-screening t-shirts and posters to protest the Vietnam War. After an internship at The Cloisters, the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she was employed at the Perls Galleries, a historic gallery on Madison Avenue where she worked for fifteen years as Associate Director. She returned to the School of Visual Arts studying graphic design with Milton Glaser and Paul Davis while continuing to take pictures on the streets of New York City. “NOT IN YOUR FACE” was born by photographing in the streets with her Leica Camera “only to find I was oftentimes standing at a corner with those who chose to wear a message on their back willing to advertise their affiliations and likes and dislikes.”

If you drive enough in rural America you see it: Purple Mountains Majesty and Amber Waves of Grain marred by a disconcerting foreground: junked cars and old tires; rotting window frames and discarded toilets. In short: Trash. For Matthew Miller, it became personal when his father and he bought an old farmhouse in Idaho as a getaway. Matthew saw the background: the old farmhouse with the landscape of rolling hills and rivers, even views of the Tetons. “It is a gorgeous, stunning property.” For someone from the city, it exudes clean air, green surroundings, and open spaces – freedom. From a distance it’s almost spiritual. But for years now he has been seeing the foreground: trash. The property’s prior owner, Judy, was a hoarder. Other’s trash was her treasure. She needed and found a faraway place to stash her pile, far away from prying eyes. All except Matthew’s. “I see the manufactured world out of place. The familiar turned strange. For years now I’ve cleaned up after her: a maddening, never-ending task. It has made me question our concepts of consumption, of waste, and of sanitation. I took to my Leica Camera as the only way to reconcile the disconnect. Judy’s Interruption is my view of a hoarder’s impact on a natural landscape.”

Leica Gallery Los Angeles
8783 Beverly Boulevard
West Hollywood, California 90048

Location: California, Los Angeles, United States Type:

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