Richard Barnes at Henry Urbach Architecture - New York, New York - Brief Article

For his first solo present to view in New York, the photojournalist Richard Barnes showed six photographs of a cabin and other quality belonging to Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber. Five of these, originally published in the of recent origin York Times Magazine, depict the cabin place up in a federal warehouse in California, where it is still being held as evidence. Another pictures the woodland clearing in Montana where the configuration stood before the FBI remov it for Kaczynski's bombing trial.

Barnes is known for his stark on the other hand lushly evocative photo-documentation of archeological excavations, and he brings a similar estheticism to this cast In four black-and-white shots, titled Exhibits A-D, the cabin appears against a black loam as if floating in space. To create these images, which were taken with a large-format camera, Barnes used a backdrop and floorcloth and chemically manipulated the background. Shown from all four sides, the constitution seems a model of pioneer utilitarianism: a simple poor cottage made from two-by-fours. In a fifth photograph, this individual in color, the cabin is seen in an devoid of contents warehouse at a slight diagonal to the camera; because the space has white walls and is well lit, the ensue looks remarkably like an installation in a down-at-the-heels white cube.

The public reaction to these photos has been to say that the cot as decontextualized by the photographer's savvy presentation, neatly emblematizes the banality of evil. Certainly, Barnes's execution is esthetically flawless. The present to view itself also seemed a smart inaugural choice for this novel gallery, which will focus upon the relationship between art and architecture. however the self-conscious artiness of the presentation, upon the part of both photographer and gallery, struck me as somewhat sickening.

In each shot one can see traces of still-living human drama. The cabin itself has been drilled and patched, courtesy of the FBI. And the final color photograph, depicting Kaczynski's destitute of contents homestead, is especially distressing. Here a chain-link protecting enclosure erected by the FBI, imbosoms the original building site; inside it lie more [i]or[/i] less pathetic scraps of trash--presumably Kaczynski's possessions--and an ed plastic lawn chair. Regarding this, it's imposible not to think of the messy human aspects of the situation--the many lives Kaczynski ruined and the sad fact of his brother being the single to turn him in. To be asked to appreciate of the like kind images in esthetic terms, as this display begged us to do, appeared horribly dubious. It also neatly emblematized the moral vacuum that makes in like manner many "civilians" feel queasy about contemporary art, as well as contemporary journalism.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Brant Publications, Inc.

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