SPENCER FINCH
The Importance of Elsewhere
September 7 - October 1, 2005
BIOGRAPHY
PRESS RELEASE

Titled after the poem “The Importance of Elsewhere” by Philip Larkin, the exhibition examines the impermanence, variation and subtlety of light and color at a precise location over a length of time or at a sustained moment. Works in the exhibition are diverse in media and presentation and include installations created from fluorescent lights and helium balloons as well as monumental works on paper and photographs. The varied and nuanced conceptual works that connect artistic and scientific concerns that Finch is known for reveal the uniqueness of individual perception and the challenge inherent in communicating a personal visual experience.

Works presented reference various places of cultural context in and around New York City. Inspired to recreate an instant of artificial light in Times Square, Finch replicates this moment using artificial light in the gallery space with an installation of 21 fluorescent lamps filtered with the colors red, yellow and blue paying homage to Mondrian’s seminal work “Broadway Boogie Woogie.” An installation of helium-filled violet and cobalt blue balloons layered one inside another builds a specific hue that represents exactly the color of the sky over Coney Island on a particular afternoon in November 2004. This work was exhibited as a grand-scale outdoor installation at Miami Basel, 2004. A large work on paper presents hundreds of dots of watercolor in varying shades of grey that chart the progression of natural light across the wall of Finch’s Brooklyn studio over time. Two black-and-white photographs document sites of the terminal ends of a rare, perfect rainbow in Brooklyn as observed by the artist from the subway and charted from his memory using topographic maps of the area to pinpoint the exact locations.