Stuart McCall

Typologies

As we observe the world around us, we unconsciously curate the visual information as it arrives, in an effort to understand a confusion of data. Our brain lumps familiar or similar objects into groups, creating patterns which are easily recognized. While this has been a very helpful evolutionary response to too much information, we are denied the enjoyment of nuance and variation as we observe our environment.

This series of compositions examines the effects of familiarity and ubiquity on our cognition, using visually familiar objects depictive of specific locations, and traditions. Photographs of these similar manmade and naturally occurring objects are presented as large black and white prints in the form of arrays, or grids, emphasizing both the similarities and variation within the groups.

For this project, objects are photographed in a rigorously formal manner that brings to mind meticulous botanical illustrations. Each subject, whether a series of olive trees or fireworks vendor kiosks, is photographed with an eye to objective documentation. With direct frontal views, photographing in an undramatic manner, this work furthers my exploration of dispassionate looking, creating precise depictions of these objects. Printed in the form of grids, these diagrammatic presentations evoke the rigor of scientific classification. In form, the structure of a contact sheet of film negatives.

Following the lead of the 20th century conceptual artists, Bernd and Hilla Becher, this works encourage the viewer to engage deeply with the formal qualities of the subject matter. While we become more aware of richness of detail within a typology, we may recognize the transience of what we encounter every day. Hilla Becher observed that by placing similar objects side by side something happens; you don’t see what makes the objects different until you bring them together. It is in the compilation that conclusions of ubiquity and familiarity, pattern and variation become apparent. The precise, side-by-side presentation stimulates consideration of the ways in which we organize and receive information, about our immediate environment and the wider world.

Featureless Landscape

What is featureless? In a landscape there is no such thing. But in this case, it is an idea - the idea of having nothing particular to look at, but rather, a myriad of details. The longer you engage with these images, the more you’ll see. This body of work explores the edges of pictorial photography, eschewing formal compositional expectations, preferring instead to present a wide evenly distributed field of content.

These landscapes are not really featureless; they simply lack a definitive centre of interest. They do not subscribe to conventional systems of composition and structure. In these pieces I have opted for uniformly interesting fields.

Over the past several years my practice has shifted between industrial and contemporary urban landscapes. I have consistently assumed an observational point of view, creating images that, for the most part, subscribe to the traditions of pictorial landscape artworks. Of late, I have taken an increasingly abstract approach to landscape illustration. In these works in particular, I have focused my attention on the texture and colour content, letting the actual subject take a secondary role.

These works examine the role of the artist in the space between the viewer and the artwork. These vague images give the observer the impression of freedom from the artist’s influence. The Featureless Landscape is a place where the viewer’s eye has permission to wander at will throughout the piece. There is no hierarchy of content or path set forth for the eye to follow. Nevertheless, the content has been carefully curated to adhere to the thesis being explored. I have chosen scenes that are emotionally interesting, monochromatic, and with content evenly distributed throughout.

This project has a affinity more in common with the colour field paintings of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, or the random abstractions of Jean-Paul Riopel and Jackson Pollock, than with the highly structured landscapes of John Constable, Claude Monet or Ansel Adams.

The image clarity inherent in photography is such that the images go beyond the visual simplicity of these colour field paintings. A myriad of detail will reveal itself as the viewer draws physically closer; as the scene is rendered in sharp 21st century digital clarity. Yet from a distance the subject matter tends to blend together into an amalgamation

Industrioglyphs

During the past decade my predominantly documentary photography practice has developed in a steady path with an observational perspective, exploring the contemporary industrial worksite. When I began photographing this subject matter, it was with an eye to architectural design and heroic structural elements. Recently I have focused my attention on specific idiosyncratic details within the same landscape.

During visits to sites of construction and industrial activity, I have been drawn to a recurring curious language of colourful temporary markings inscribed on cement buttresses, building walls, road surfaces, posts, boulders, trees, and even made directly onto the ground. Reminiscent of Cuneiform, Elamite or prehistoric scripts painted onto cave walls and cliff faces, these inscriptions pass a message to some future observer, which presumes an understanding continuum.

In a complex, hazardous and deadline driven environment like the modern-day construction site, a simple method of mark making is often the only, and certainly the most expedient way to pass on information from one crew to another. With the use of spray paint, chalk, pencils, paint and felt markers, these markings are created, employing various conventions – geometric representations, coloured symbols, numerals, acronyms, and abbreviated words.

It is the temporary nature of these markings that I find compelling, marking the transition between permanence and impermanence. Lasting for months, weeks or minutes, they indicate the need for an action to be taken. They are soon covered, sawn through, dug up or otherwise removed from sight. With photography it is possible to contrast the temporary nature of the markings with the permanence of the resulting structure and the actual photographic print itself, allowing for examination and interpretation over time.

Fantasy Gardens

In early 2008 rumours began to circulate that the iconic Richmond property, Fantasy Garden World, was to be redeveloped. Fantasy Gardens had been a popular, if controversial show garden/theme park during the 1980's and 90's. In its heyday, the garden was owed by wealthy Dutch immigrant, Bill Vander Zalm, who was at the time, a provincial MLA who went on to become Premier of British Columbia. His later sale of the park led to charges of conflict of interest, which in turn led to his resignation in 1991 and the defeat of the Social Credit government. The garden then began a slow decline under the new offshore ownership, and was eventually closed.

When I heard about its imminent redevelopment, I was struck with a sense of sadness for several reasons. I was disturbed that this large bit of wild green space would be lost, and that this piece of local history was to be replaced with more suburban development.

For years I had driven past the garden with curiosity about what was going on in there. I got it into my head that I must get in and photograph the garden in its wild state. It took me more than a year to act, but in the spring of 2010, I entered off Number 5 Road, through a thicket of wild conifers and rhododendrons, and set about documenting the current state of the gardens. I visited the site several times over the course of 2010, initially in the spring, and finally in winter. The seasonal differences were striking and I photographed many of the same scenes during the two seasons.

During my first visit in the spring of 2010, I prowled around the property for two or three hours, photographing the various pathways, ponds and any remaining hardscape still visible. Sitting undisturbed for over a decade, I was struck by the resiliency of the previously domesticated flowering trees and shrubs, which had continued to flourish despite the lack of attention.

A few months later I returned and photographed the garden in December. Fantasy Garden had become a world of decaying vegetation, and crumbling statuary and structures. With much of the foliage gone, it was easier to see the structural elements of the garden. Collapsing arbours, small buildings covered in blackberry vines, fallen statuary, water features choked with weeds and bulrushes.

My passion for photographing human works in a state of transition is evident in much of my previous work. My series Encroachment suggests an imagined post-human world. Looking at our constructions and labours and imagining the length of time before all traces would be gone. Fantasy Gardens offered an excellent canvas to continue exploring this notion.

Wide Desert

The desert has fascinated me for some time. It is a place where the climate and environment are quite incompatible with human survival. Scarcity of water, and extremes of heat and cold are typical… Yet people have inhabited and tried to make a living in these places since time immemorial. Many come, a hardy few linger on. The extremes of climate have the ability to preserve traces of past activity in a remarkable way that is not so much the case in wetter and more moderate climate. Structures, roads, footpaths, machinery, fences, and garbage heaps tend to remain, far beyond what their creators anticipated. I have for the past several years developed a keen interest in remains left behind and eventually becoming a part of the landscape. The deserts of western North America are wonderful places to examine this.

In February 2010 I completed a series of large scale images created in the deserts of Nevada and northern Mexico. Shot using small format digital photographic equipment as a series of overlapping frames, the digital files are later combined in post-production to create a seamless panoramic image. I have used this technology for a few years, and find the possibility of extremely high image quality with the convenience of small format equipment appealing.

Industrial Landscapes

Project Summary: A series of images depicting the unexpected alignment of elements within the visual tapestry of the industrial landscape.

This project examines big human endeavor and the machinery that helps accomplish it; the immensity of industrial scale; the mystery and symmetry of its inner workings and the nuanced arrangement of its parts. I explore the arrangement of bold colors, monolithic shapes and unusual textures which occur in industrial and construction settings. Despite a complete lack of consideration for aesthetics by painters and steel workers, surveyors, and equipment operators there is an unselfconscious aesthetic which arises as these elements frequently orchestrate themselves into a rough canvas filled with unconventional, terrible beauty.

The photographic subject matter is based upon a number of factors. I have made use of the vivid colours which are surprisingly abundant in industrial sites. These colourful elements exist in the form of warning signs, cautionary lines painted on floors and walls, painted equipment, valves, knobs, and infrastructure including ductwork, etc. I have also been drawn to include the occasional text elements which have been applied by the workers. Sometimes humorous additions like the word “ironic” scrawled above a pile of iron recycling, other times incomprehensible hieroglyphic markings on the side of a construction site excavation. Additionally I have worked with the element of scale - the sense of vastness one feels when standing outside a monolithic windowless building larger than a housing estate, or when observing pipelines that span a continent.

This work addresses an uncomfortable confusion of feelings that we have for industry, ranging from reverence to revulsion. We lament the coastal oil spill, while thoughtlessly filling our automobiles with fuel. We tisk at e-waste and the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere, while learning about these scourges on our large screen televisions, shipped from the across the world.

The exhibition size of the images is approximately 20" X 30" or 30" X 20". They are available as limited edition archival inkjet prints.

Urban Scenic

This project examines the 21st century, industrialized urban environment. I am compelled by the relentlessness of the city and the way we shape and decorate the places we inhabit. Cities are where most people in the western world live. In the nooks and cranies of these urban environments, so much is expressed about a society. It's interests, it's priorities, it's asthetic. Diverging from traditional street photography, I have turned my camera away from people, but to the streets themselves. This series examines the indelible fingerprint of human activity, sometimes new, sometimes long past, sometimes in transition.

The subject matter of these images is quite varied, from garbage cans to perfect lawns. All the images are unified by an overarching observation of the unexpected alignment of elements, colours and patterns. I see visual coincidence, and look for meaning.

Discontinuous Spectrums

This project examines public lighting which has been selected strictly for the purpose of providing maximum illumination at the lowest cost. The images show the exteriors of various locations ranging from industrial sites to city parks. They have been photographed at night or at dusk. Sometimes the entire night sky is illuminated by light spill.

These lights, described as discontinuous spectrum sources, produce light by the reaction of electrical energy passing through particular gasses. The end product, an entirely unnatural illumination, creates light in which entire sections of the visual spectrum are missing. Sodium Vapour lacks blues and greens; Metal Halide is lacking much of the red spectrum, etc.

In this series of images I consider the extent to which light pollution pours into our night skies, not only in urban settings but in some cases far away from population centers. My other focus with this project is one which I frequently visit in my photography. I examine the way that disparate elements can synchronize to become greater than the sum of their parts. In this instance, the lighting designers were not giving aesthetics much of a thought, their primary concern being the illumination of an area. Nonetheless the resultant effect is significant.

The photographs were created using both digital and conventional film cameras. The colours and compositions have not been manipulated except for minor adjustments which could normally be conducted in conventional chemical based photographic practices. Essentially, all the colour and light effects are as I found them.

The exhibition size of the images is approximately 20″ × 30″. They are archival inkjet prints in editions of 25.

Industrial Monochromes

These photographs examine the relationship of form and function in our perception of common objects. In this series of images I have isolated details of the industrial environment. Pattern, form and texture replace function as the object’s reason for being. I frequently encounter visually fascinating objects — gears, hydraulic hoses, bearings and massive steel or concrete constructs — in the course of my commercial work. Transferring them from the shop floor to the gallery wall alters their purpose fundamentally. When the context is changed the object changes, just as the world changes when we alter the way we view it.

Stuart McCall Fine Art

Featureless Landscape

About Stuart McCall

Gallery representation

Vancouver Art Gallery Sales and Rentals

Newzones, Calgary, Alberta

Artist Talks & Presentations

Exhibitions

Typologies

Featureless Landscape

Industrioglyphs

Fantasy Gardens

Wide Desert

Industrial Landscapes

Urban Scenic

Discontinuous Spectrums

Industrial Monochromes