Difficulties with Interplanetary Travel
The artist Sean Higgins blurs fact and fiction in his new body of work on view at the Collette Blanchard Gallery in New York City until July 31. The exhibit, Difficulties with Interplanetary Travel, piques the imagination with 11 large, square, digitally altered photographs that have been cropped, angled and enlarged to resemble a range of scenes, from landmasses on earth to otherworldly terrain.
“The concept is about making a group of work that’s earth-based and science fiction-based,” said Higgins, who used his own photographs, as well as images from NASA’s public archives, to produce the art. “They’re tweaked just enough to make you wonder where they were taken and if they’re real.”
Is It The Experiment That’s Got You Worried? might be a charred landscape, the result of a catastrophe or, maybe, it’s simply a rocky mountaintop. Rochambeau seems to depict a fiery burst of pluming smoke, one that looks like the coils of the brain’s cranium.
Higgins toys with familiar details, gives them a dream-like quality and sometimes detonates them. At first, they seem recognizable, such as Tokyo All Night, a work inspired by the Mario Brothers video game. Its form resembles a cloud against a turquoise sky, a clump of crystallized snow or a giant head of cauliflower, but, then again, it could be a mushrooming nuclear explosion.
“There’s a certain psychological component,” Higgins said. “There’s a bit of an apocalyptic overtone to it.”
Not all of his landscapes hint at destruction. There are images that conjure exotic locales. I’m a Mountain, Man reminds me of a picture that I once saw in a travel magazine of the Incan-built lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Mist shrouds the isolated green mountaintop and gives it the aura of a faraway place, a distant memory or a future expedition.
Higgins, who lives in Los Angeles, began the project in September 2008. Besides L.A. and New York, he has shown his art in Seattle and Philadelphia.
As the use of technology pervades everyday life, Higgins’ bold exploration of real and imagined landscapes probes notions of space and time. Photographs, distorted or enhanced, have the power to challenge reality, provoke memories and shape perceptions of the future.
Collette Blanchard, the vivacious owner of the gallery on 26 Clinton Street and an art industry veteran, unveiled her new space this past October. She adds another must-see venue to a burgeoning art scene on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Located across the street from the Cocoa Bar, the gallery is one of many local businesses that has made this area a popular destination for its culture, cozy restaurants, such as Bruschetteria, and pretty boutiques like Szeki.
The hip style of the Lower East Side belies its gritty but rich history, which dates back more than a century to a time when immigrants lived in tenements and sold their wares on pushcarts. Today, the neighborhood’s business owners are just as industrious and have transformed it into an upscale community known for its art, culture, dining and shopping.
More pictures of the Lower East Side
“The concept is about making a group of work that’s earth-based and science fiction-based,” said Higgins, who used his own photographs, as well as images from NASA’s public archives, to produce the art. “They’re tweaked just enough to make you wonder where they were taken and if they’re real.”
Is It The Experiment That’s Got You Worried? might be a charred landscape, the result of a catastrophe or, maybe, it’s simply a rocky mountaintop. Rochambeau seems to depict a fiery burst of pluming smoke, one that looks like the coils of the brain’s cranium.
Higgins toys with familiar details, gives them a dream-like quality and sometimes detonates them. At first, they seem recognizable, such as Tokyo All Night, a work inspired by the Mario Brothers video game. Its form resembles a cloud against a turquoise sky, a clump of crystallized snow or a giant head of cauliflower, but, then again, it could be a mushrooming nuclear explosion.
“There’s a certain psychological component,” Higgins said. “There’s a bit of an apocalyptic overtone to it.”
Not all of his landscapes hint at destruction. There are images that conjure exotic locales. I’m a Mountain, Man reminds me of a picture that I once saw in a travel magazine of the Incan-built lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Mist shrouds the isolated green mountaintop and gives it the aura of a faraway place, a distant memory or a future expedition.
Higgins, who lives in Los Angeles, began the project in September 2008. Besides L.A. and New York, he has shown his art in Seattle and Philadelphia.
As the use of technology pervades everyday life, Higgins’ bold exploration of real and imagined landscapes probes notions of space and time. Photographs, distorted or enhanced, have the power to challenge reality, provoke memories and shape perceptions of the future.
Collette Blanchard, the vivacious owner of the gallery on 26 Clinton Street and an art industry veteran, unveiled her new space this past October. She adds another must-see venue to a burgeoning art scene on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Located across the street from the Cocoa Bar, the gallery is one of many local businesses that has made this area a popular destination for its culture, cozy restaurants, such as Bruschetteria, and pretty boutiques like Szeki.
The hip style of the Lower East Side belies its gritty but rich history, which dates back more than a century to a time when immigrants lived in tenements and sold their wares on pushcarts. Today, the neighborhood’s business owners are just as industrious and have transformed it into an upscale community known for its art, culture, dining and shopping.
More pictures of the Lower East Side
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