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FROM CUBA TO THE SOUTH POLE
Cuba Libre: Two shows up around town have
been related in their themes of document
ing a place to which the artist is a visitor. A
series of color photographs make up Stephen
Humphreys' "Trans Luz"—recently on display
at White Tiger Gourmet. (While no longer
up, this show merits comment.) Humphreys
captured the series of images in Havana and
Trinidad, Cuba in 2008, and the eight photos,
framed minimally in black frames, show vari
ous aspects of Cuban culture: extreme ciose-
ups of colored walls, the paint rubbed away
to reveal traces of past layers and raw wall;
people juxtaposed against bright backgrounds;
and close-cropped scenes of the city's archi
tecture. In none of Humphreys' work do you
see traces of sky or nature, instead,
his focus seems to be on people and
their environments, including snip
pets of culture they have created.
But rather than being—according
to the artist's statement—"typically
Cuban," the photographs are instead
about philosophical issues of tran
scendence and barriers between the
material and immaterial. These issues
can be condensed into the notion of
the movement and character of light,
which may be impeded by physical
barriers, but for Humphreys they are
"undeterred by the imagination."
After reading Humphreys' state
ment, I looked differently at the
images of figures, such as a woman
lying (in a pose that blatantly mim
ics the pose of crucified Christ) on
top of a rainbow-colored background
or a man whose tattoos seem to
blend into the rough wall behind
him. The images of flat, multi-col
ored walls function as abstractions,
recalling mid-century Modernist
painting and its spiritual implica
tions. Furthermore, his interest in
light is related to the process of
making photographs which depends
upon light to "draw" images. Yet,
the intellectual intent of Humphreys'
statement does not always seem to
come through in his photographs. I think the
photographs should perhaps be larger than
their standard 20" x 30" format. A potentially
evocative image, like chalk drawing on a crum
bling wall—a subject both mundane and beau
tiful—might be transformed into something a
little more impressive on a larger scale. That
being said, themes as large and cerebral as the
ones that Humphreys tackles are inherently
difficult to make visual, and a reading (as well
as a re-reading) opened up the photographs.
Southern Exposure; Ultimately, Humphreys',
philosophically based photographs do serve as
documents of details of the Cuban cityscape,
culture and its people—souvenirs of his trav
els and his own personal vision of another
place. Likewise, father-and-son duo Alan and
Colin Campbell's paintings of Antarctica were
created as the two travelled and spent time
on the continent alongside scientific research
teams. "Antarctica: Images from a Frozen
Continent," up at Cine, is made-up of many
studies in oil and watercolor that document
the region, mostly consisting of unpopulated
and icy vistas colored by dramatic light.
Indeed, though the environment is remark
ably different from Havana and Trinidad, the
landscapes are nevertheless as bright and
multi-hued as any of Humphreys' photographs,
showing the effects of light in the extreme
latitudes of the South Pole on the frozen land
scape. Also on view are paintings of the inte
riors of lodges where the artists and scientists
stayed, and still lifes of objects inside them.
Environmental and expedition artist Alan
Campbell works both in watercolor and oil,
and his work in the former allows him to cre
ate highly detailed studies (as in "Lemaire
Channel"), while his oil paintings—appropri
ate to the more tedious medium—are quick
impressions. His tri-part "Moonlight Over
Erebus," a series of studies of the same moun
tain peak from different views that reveals
the different effects of light, is reminiscent of
Monet's series of studies of Notre Dame at dif
ferent times of day and, for me, is among his
most successful works. Campbell's son, Colin,
seems to work mainly in oil, and his work is
probably most consistently the stronger of the
two. Images like "Castle Rock," or his study
of Erebus, "Erebus—Plum Light," showcase
his skill at using quick, textured applications
of paint and bits of bare paper to capture the
essence of a scene.
Along with the paintings are maps of loca
tions that appear in the paintings, statements
from the artists that give a brief history of the
artists' involvement with the National Science
Foundation's Artists and Writers Program,
and maybe most interesting, quotes from the
artists' sketchbooks and field journals that
describe moments such as the elder Campbell's
encounter with a group of frozen penguin
corpses and the eerie, disturbing beauty of
the scene. The cluttered aesthetic of paint
ings and text conveys the overall feel of an
explorer's journal. Finally, though it's tempting
to find a watercolor painting of a group of
penguins teetering around on ice cloying or
the landscapes or still lifes overly steeped in
convention, the show is successful at what it
sets out to accomplish: it allows one to see a
subjective account of Antarctica.
Rebecca Brantley
Stephen Humphreys’ work "Pasamuralla” from his recent pho
tography exhibition at White Tiger Gourmet.
16 FLAGPOLE.COM • NOVEMBER 19.2008