David Maisel, Library of Dust @Von Lintel

JTF (just the facts): A total of 7 large scale color images, framed in black with no mat, and hung in the single room gallery space and above the reception desk. All of the works are c-prints from 2005. The prints come in three sizes: 64x48, in editions of 1, 40x30, in editions of 5, and 14x11, in editions of 3. The exhibit contains 6 images in the largest size and 1 image in the medium size. A monograph of this body of work was published by Chronicle Books in 2008 (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While we often try to convince ourselves that seeing photography on our computer screens is an acceptable substitute for the first hand experience, once in a while a body of work comes along that systematically destroys this nice theory. David Maisel's Library of Dust first surfaced several years ago on the West coast, and we have since seen JPEG reproductions of the work in plenty of articles and reviews. But now that the work has finally reached New York, I can say that even though I was largely familiar with what I was going to see, I was wholly unprepared for the powerful effect these prints actually have in person.

At first glance, these are deceptively simple pictures: straight forward still life shots of copper canisters set against an enveloping black background. Some are burnished to a shiny glow, but most are covered with colorful corrosions and salty encrustations that have built up along the edges and seams. What is altogether surprising is how astonishingly and sublimely beautiful these objects are. The mineral deposits and residues cover the spectrum from sparkling blues and aquamarine greens to acidic yellows and rusty reds; the thick layers of color look alternately like Italian marbled papers and top down views of rugged coastlines and coral reefs. Swirls, waves, bubbles and bumpy sediments are piled on in ever more complex and chaotic forms. Chemical reactions have never looked so good, especially when enlarged to such a massive scale.

Amid all this loveliness, however, comes the jarring backstory to these objects, which turns the beauty on its head and adds a darker, more philosophical meaning to the photographs. The canisters contain the unclaimed cremated remains of patients at the Oregon State Insane Asylum. The simple cans had been sealed in a less than water tight vault for more than a century; the combination of the flood water and the leaching chemicals from the ashes inside caused the corrosions that now decorate the outsides.

These historical facts add an entirely different set of conceptual questions and ideas to the works. Some might see them as meditations on death and passing of time. Others might center on the horrors of such hospitals, or the emptiness of living and dying, abandoned and forgotten by family. Perhaps there is even some glimmer of hope in the idea that the individual personalities of these patients seem to have been reborn in the colorful residues (the images becoming anonymous "portraits"). However the viewer interprets the narrative, the pictures now have many more layers of meaning, and a striking duality that is both inviting and repulsive at the same time. This tension between the visual and conceptual is what makes these works stand out. These prints are also an excellent example of the intelligent use of monumental scale: the scope of the biggest prints highlights the seductive elegance of the objects, which in turn amplifies the contrast with the haunting backstory; not big for the sake of big, but big to increase the power of the emotional payoff.

Overall, these are accomplished, mature images that successfully work on multiple levels. Don't miss the chance to see these prints in person; they're really nothing like the thumbnails you've seen before.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows:

• The 64x48 prints are $15000 each
• The 40x30 prints range from $6600 to $7500, based on the place in the edition
• The 14x11 prints are $2100, or can be purchased in sets of 5 for $9000

Maisel's work has very little secondary market history, so it is difficult to discern any meaningful price pattern; as a result, interested collectors will need to follow up at retail. While these works don't fit into any of our collecting genres, my favorites were the images that have become extensive harmonies in blue, covering every available inch of the canisters in waves of churning color.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Features: Artforum (here), BLDGBLOG (here), LA Times (here), Flyp (here)
• Interview: Archinect, 2006 (here)
• Book review: Lens Culture (here)

David Maisel, Library of Dust
Through February 27th

Von Lintel Gallery
520 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

Von Lintel also has a new blog, with plenty of detailed information on David Maisel (here)

Book: David Maisel, Oblivion

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2006 by Nazraeli Press (here). 48 pages, with 15 black and white images. Includes a poem by Mark Strand and essays by William L. Fox and David Maisel. (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: While we would like to think that collectors and photographers find each other through some efficient meritocracy of affinity, the reality is that nearly all collectors are scouring around looking for works that catch their eye, and a significant degree of random chance and accident often come into play. In this particular case, I think we saw this book when it first came out and flipped through it at the Strand or elsewhere, thinking it was pretty interesting, but not actually purchasing it at that point. We then visited an online exhibit of the work at the JGS Forward Thinking Museum (here, recently redesigned) a year or so later, and were again impressed by what we saw. It wasn't until a month or so ago that we actually bought the book, after sitting down and thinking about work we had seen over the past few years that we wanted to explore further and write about for this site. So here we are, with a review of a book most people reviewed in 2006, a slow progression of repeated positive encounters bringing us together now.

The seemingly endless sprawl of the city of Los Angeles and the unique human culture that has grown up in this environment have been rich material for many photographers. In particular, its vast miles of housing developments and freeways have been repeated subject matter for aerial photographers who have been fascinated by the patterns made in the landscape by the built structures and forms.

While David Maisel's images in this book are part of this larger history, they have a look and feel that is altogether different than Ed Ruscha's views of parking lots. The obvious difference is that Maisel's works are negative prints, with the black and white tonalities reversed, creating unsettling views that upend our conventional wisdom about what shots from the air are supposed to look like. What I think is more provocative is that using this ashen palette, Maisel has selected perspectives and compositions that heighten the sense of foreboding and anxiety embedded in the landscape (long shots where the individual buildings become a dense carpet, and closer up views where the white shadows fall in unexpected directions). Others have commented on how these images resemble military surveillance or night vision pictures, and indeed there is a bleak paranoia that pervades all of these works.

To my eyes, the formations and designs in the images most resemble the results of some biology experiment gone wild, where the self replicating mechanism has been unleashed, creating alternately rigid structures that mimic semiconductor circuit diagrams and more organic films that take after microscopic mold growing in a petri dish. As such, the images became thought-provoking vignettes of what indeed a massive human city like Los Angeles really is, engineered on a desert platform with borrowed water, and what it might mean to be a single individual eking out a life in this outrageous place.

Collector's POV: David Maisel is represented by Von Lintel Gallery (here) in New York, along with several others around the US. The works from Oblivion are 40x40 c-prints. These impressive images would fit extremely well into our collection (juxtaposed with other city scenes across the history of the medium), but as usual, the problem is that they are much too large for the constraints of our display space.

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Interview with Archinect, 2006 (here)
• Conversation with Jörg Colberg in Seesaw magazine, 2007 (here)
• Audio interview with Lens Culture, 2005 (here)