Everything is Anything Else
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Work by Jason Lukas, Zach Norman, and Aaron Hegert
at Third Party Gallery opening reception Aug. 3rd
“Everything is Anything Else, the forthcoming exhibition of photographs by Jason Lukas, Zachary Norman, and Aaron Hegert, is a closed circuit exploration of the conditions and possibilities of photography in the contemporary moment. At the beginning of summer 2013 we began a collaborative and dialogical process of image making that was guided by a simple notion: that every aspect of the contemporary photograph is constantly in flux. Its materiality, its indexical qualities, its context, its content, its believability, its permanence and proliferation are always in question, unstable, and subject to easy manipulation by both its producers and consumers alike. This condition has only intensified in the post-internet age. Though these conditions are frequently observed and considered by many, and many more capable than us, the goals of this project go beyond an observation or critique. As image-makers ourselves, we wanted to develop a participatory model, a process that could open up questions about what a photograph can do, how we see it, what perceptions it can cause, and what actions these perceptions can cause in turn.
We began the process by making quotidian images. The subject matter being essentially arbitrary, our only real desire was to make images of objects and places that would appear vulnerable: vulnerable to multiple trajectories of association, multiple interpretations, multiple lines of flight. These initial images have been circulated between us, made and remade. Each image presented here exists in flux between multiple instantiations. Each iteration contains some elements of the previous iterations, either formally or materially, while other elements have been replaced or left behind entirely. The process has become obliterative. The specific cultural information within each image has been stripped away or negated. What is left behind is a base catalyst, a fundamental interest, a visual alchemy, a map of trajectories; a synopsis of the uncanny drawn out of everyday life. The works presented in Everything is Anything Else are not finished pieces or an end to our process, but merely a pausing point to invite the public to engage in this dialogue along with us.”