NELSON HANCOCK GALLERY

Nelson Hancock Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of photographs by Arthur During drawn from an ongoing project entitled “Window Seat.” In this work, During explores the disjointed isolation of air travel, avoiding namable spaces and landmarks in favor of placeless vistas. The generic cities, roads and airports depicted in “Window Seat” become generalized scapes that allude principally to the experience of travel.

Positioning himself opposite of the landscape tradition that emphasizes the character and specificity of place, During describes his subject as “the no-place known as ‘in transit.’ This place is familiar only as tarmac, blurred lights, rainy windows and open skies. Everyone has been there. When you’re passing through, anywhere can become that no-place.”

In a novel parallel exhibition entitled “May be Copyright Protected,” much of the gallery space will be devoted to an examination of the afterlife of a single Arthur During image. Thanks to an odd twist in the mechanics of Google’s search engine, one of During’s images spent much of the spring and summer of 2006 at the top of searches for “Rain image.” As a result, via Google, this image has been appropriated by thousands of MySpace users and bloggers around the world. Initially resistant to these permission-free appropriations, During has embraced this new fan base and has been collecting “screen grabs” showing his image used as an expressive design element on hundreds of different blogs and personal websites. Ironically, it is the very placeless anonymity of During’s images that appear to have led to their popularity on the internet, with the same image illustrating the sites of a young Romanian gigolo-type, a sad Korean girl, some kids in an evangelical rock band, a self-described “nerdy gamer,” and a guy who calls himself “The Amazin Asian.”

Press:
Photographer Turns Myspace Infringement into Art Show

December 6, 2006 - January 13, 2007

Reception for the Artist:
Thursday, December 7, 2006
6-8pm