July 14 - August 2, 2009
Nathan Pohio usually makes moving images. However, Spyglass Field Recordings, Vol.1, Pohio's second solo exhibition at Jonathan Smart Gallery, comprises mainly stills - a body of work undertaken while the inaugural James Ormond Wallace fellow at La Rongere, in northern France.
Finding fascination in a little watercourse behind the Chateau at La Rongere, Pohio worked both day and night, and the results are enchanting and full of intimate detail. By taking various approaches to using cameras and lenses, Pohio was able to achieve a pin-hole effect, with the images becoming rounded and loosing focus in places, often around their edges. The appearance may look contrived, but this is merely the artist making marks... in this instance, with light.
Pohio's photographs are not manipulated in their printing in any way, though occasionally he does present them upside down.
Ultimately, these charming little observations of the world around him appear more real than real. We are invited into wonderland. Titles like Go Ask Alice and Emerge from Earth, along with the tondo format placed discretely and variously within each matt, add to the Victorian spy-glass feel. This is a simple and sophisticated show. Nathan Pohio is an artist with a wonderful visual sensibility, who brings rare scrutiny to the little things around him. Images like Robot and What Was Found There are an absolute treat.
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Gucci in the sky
Hiatus
Shore Leave
Once found there
Dragon