Ryerson MAXEX

© 2006 Alex Webster http://www.alexwebster.ca

Tonight (Technically last night...check the post time) I went to my buddy Alex Webster's photo show down at Ryerson University. His photos were a part of Ryerson's MAXEX (aka Maximum Exposure) show for Photography Students. The show is located at the School of Image Arts @Ryerson University. If you want to go it's open from noon-9pm from now till Sunday (Tomorrow it's 10am-9pm).

His photos on display were inspired by a painter who's name escapes me right now...I'll add it back on when I remember later...but the painter would have a similar theme using objects to complete a form like his work shown above.

In order starting from top left to bottom; Hearing, Taste and Vision. Hearing is my Favourite one of the three...it seems most lifelike to me in that it looks like a person wearing a mask rather than a face composed of various images.

Tonight was my second every visit to a real photo show. My first was another of Alex's (possibly his first) downtown on Adelaide...I think it was for 'Contact'...not sure...I'll get back to you on that one...

Anyways, tonight was filled with alot of great work.

The first thing that I thought caught my eye was a series of photos called "EAT ME"...It consisted of photos of individuals lying on those styrofoam trays that you'd find in a supermarket holding ground beef or any meat for that matter...nude but completely bald/hairless and with any of the 'nude bits' as absent...meaning that nipples and genitals were 'painted' or edited over such that they were absent...did that make any sense?? Whatever...go see it...tis interesting...

I regret not having taken one of the Artist's business cards which were quite cool....they were the photos on display but printed directly onto a styrofoam tray and then covered in cellophane...as if packaged meat...I regret not taking one...and once again my memory has failed me...I think it was Sammy Rawal...But I'll go back Sunday when I'm in the area playing pool and check it out again...Hopefully I'll have found/remembered the missing info in this post

I picked up a few business cards from other Artists who were also on display. In alphabetical order by last name:
Brandon Allen
Michelle Darwin
Larissa Issler
Emily Silverman (The business card I took didn't have a website...but here's her email)
Cameron Smith
Lizzie Vickery

Out of these six I especially enjoyed the work by Brandon Allen, Cameron Smith (the smaller photos that had backlit light source) and Lizzie Vickery.

Other noteable Artists who either ran out of cards or didnt have one at all but I thought I should mention anyways are:
Morgan Brown (email)
J0yce Mosby (email)
Maya Visnyei (email)
Jennifer Wolfraim (email)

They might have websites...another thing for me to look into...

All the Artists that I have mentioned (Including my buddy Alex), I mention them because I really liked the asthetics of the photos...shadows, colours etc. I admit that whatever deep meaning or symbolism that some if not all of these artists were trying to make was completely wasted on me. If I was given time to really reflect on each and everyone of these works maybe I could come up with something but I doubt I would understand or even be able to guess as to what they were getting at...I appologize to them for me (or my?) just not getting 'it'...