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ARTIST'S STATEMENT

This exhibition is about the subjective beauty of materials.

Architects touch EVERYTHING. Buildings and built spaces all have substances and the substances have a surface quality. It is of supreme interest what something is made out of, especially in this day of substitute, "equal to," imitation, or "green" products. We are deluged by advertising about new and wondrous materials; but an architect would not select anything without examining a sample, and weighing, scratching, bending, and looking at it in differing light conditions. This is true for basic materials such as glass, roofing, and all metals, even those not intended for public viewing. Some building look their best before they are finished, or in a state of decay.

Entering a building, architects are uncontrollably drawn to the nearest wall or other feature in need of examination. Touching it is irresistible, (an acknowledged behavior problem in art galleries and museums). What was this architect thinking, or were they forced to compromise? How did they build this assembly of materials? this is the Fifth Dimension of enjoyment for designers, a guilty pleasure. In this show I try to show why things want to be touched.

Many of the following photographs first appeared in a 2009 exhibition at the Nelson Gallery, the fine art museum at the University of California, Davis. That UNDERWALLS series of images recorded views of building components intended to be covered up and never seen again.

Other images are selected from defined studies in Europe and the western United States between 1971 and 2011. The objective of this show is to invite a closer than normal look at surfaces and textures. Objects are not distorted for this purpose, though textures are highlighted. Beautiful or not, they are interesting. Viewer discretion advised!

CONSTRAINTS: All photos were made on Kodak 35mm film, full frame, with only available light, using a Nikon FA camera and fixed-focus lenses. Image manipulations were in all cases limited to what can be done in a chemical darkroom. I wanted to demonstrate that film is still a viable medium, a mature technology with great dynamic range.

Allen Lowry is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and currently resides in Davis, California. As an architect, he has managed numerous building projects for the University of California. All of them are made of MATERIALS.

-- Allen Lowry


ARTIST'S RECEPTION - South Gallery:
Friday, January 20, 2012
6 - 9pm

Open to the public

Exhibition runs through February, 2012



Click here to purchase the RAW Material exhibition catalog.

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