I have always been drawn to tiny peepholes into private worlds and architectural spaces where I can cast a fantasy of lives that inhabit the structural planes forming an interior. Recently I visited Western Exhibitions in Chicago and saw the work of Marshall Brown’s Chimera series, photomontages of intricately woven buildings forming an aesthetic of places that is entirely believable in their play on reality.
In my own practice, I would take to the streets at night and seek that perfect view into a night window. The darkness helped flatten my own perception of depth and relation to that interior, as well as concentrate my view on a miniature illumination and details found within. The act of voyeurism was a thrill, and being removed spatially from the location left a chilling sense of something artificial, like a doll’s house constructed to play out an anticipated narrative. I was attracted to the color of walls, how shadows fell, a tiny chandelier, an elegant staircase leading to unknown space within the depth, and a memory or emotion shrinking me inside.
Both looking at Marshall’s 11 x 17 collages and collecting night windows created a stillness and slow observation of piecing together place. His works are an intuitive sampling, just as one imagines parts of their dream world fusing into the perfect complimentary whole. Additionally the titles seems to signify a date. I learned they were created between January 1 through December 31, 2014, similar in how I would make a night window once a day and repeat the practice over an extended period of time.
What is enticing about these works is their ability to form a realistic dimension of fragmented planes. The sampled photos come together so easily that I could forget how meticulously he formed the linear tempo throughout one image. One can convincingly see that world beyond as real and own their view in, just as if I can glance around the curtain, drawn by a light from within.
To find out more about Marshall Brown’s work visit here and to get details on Chimera visit here.