ashes. snow. beauty. sentimentality

this is an exhibit of photographs and movies, shown in a structure built from cargo containers and (nice, white) tarps. the photographs are luscious and sepia-toned, printed on a muslin-like fabric. the lighting in the picture is wonderful. they have high contrast, often to the point of pixelating some parts of the picture. the pictures are of animals (e.g. elephants, leopards ) and people, artistically arranged. i loved the display environment. rough wooden walkways were built as if over a swamp, and the rest of the floor was covered with smooth rocks. the pictures exploited my favorite characteristics of black and white photography, the emphasis on light and shape. there was a picture of a young girl in profile with her head tiled up to the sky and elephants (as i tentatively recall) behind her. the orientation of her head gave an oddness to the lines in her ear which made her seem just as mysterious and foreign as the animals behind her.

at the end of the first section of photographs was a movie, which showed many of the same scenes as the photographs. it was here that the exhibit crossed into pretentious sentimentality. the movie featured women with various unusual animals in boats and standing in water. the animals climbed over the women, everyone moving languorously.

still, there were some images of stunning beauty. the images of raindrops causing concentric ripples on the river made a beautiful pattern, more so because of how the black and white film emphasized the contrast of the ripples in the water. i allowed my eyes to unfocus slightly and watched the geometric pattern fill the screen.

there were two more movies (one way too long) and another aisle of pictures. i reliably will watch elephants do nearly anything, and i enjoyed the elephant parts of the movies. at this point though, words were introduced, dragging the whole effort down with sonorous tone and patronizing perspective.

i contrast this work to andrew goldsworthy's. andrew goldsworthy’s subject is also beauty in the natural world, but in his case the aesthetic is the message. if the colbert show had included only the first 50 photographs, it would have been wonderful. instead, it seemed as if the artist felt the need to explain and embellish. i yearned for humor or self-awareness.