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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Five: Stimulating the imagination with “opposites and contradictions” > Art Show, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005
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16-JUL-2005

Art Show, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005

“ART Santa Fe” is an international contemporary art fair, bringing dealers, artists and art collectors from all over the world together for four days each year. Held in the city’s Sweeney Convention Center, the essence of the show is the sheer size and variety of its offerings. I used the principle of contradiction to make this image incongruous and expressive. Shooting with a 24mm wideangle lens from a balcony ringing the second floor of the building, I walked around the huge show until I could find a single person to contrast to the maze of illuminated yet abstracted booths. And I found her. Here she is, surrounded by the creativity of her clients, quietly awaiting her potential customers. The seemingly endless racks of spotlights, the glowing white walls of the various booths, the curving darkness beyond, all play against this solitary figure, the focal point of the image and a striking example of contradiction expressed through scale incongruity. She is utterly alone in an image filled with scores of abstracted possibilities.

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Phil Douglis17-Aug-2005 00:19
Thanks, Tim, for this interpretation. Art is a symbolic reflection of life. Art thus often imitates life, and life imitates art. And this process can, as you say, be very complex. She is indeed being watched by the very art she sells. The room in which she sits is ablaze with dozens of lights, each of them pointing the way to a work of art. And all of the art staring down from these walls has, as you've said, the potential to inspire, provoke thought, and lend direction to those who study it. In this image, I have implied that this woman herself, has become another object worth studying.
Tim May16-Aug-2005 23:38
Of course she is being watched by the same art that she is attempting to sell. For me this is a metaphor for the complexity of art - the way that art can lend light and direction to lives.
Phil Douglis26-Jul-2005 18:20
The maze of life. What a wonderful interpretation, Ana. This image, which at first seems to be descriptive, becomes very expressive when you look it in terms of symbols in juxtaposition. Most of us ignore the complexity of life as a journey, just as she is doing here, and instead concentrate only on the moment at hand. There are so many different paths we can take, as you say, but the easiest thing to do is to sit tight and not make those choices. And that is what this image says to me. You say she is waiting to make a choice, but I see her as being oblivious to the choices that are available to her. And that is a good test of an expressive image -- its ability to say different things to different people
Ana Carloto O'Shea26-Jul-2005 11:18
Well, going through this amazing new gallery of yours and after seeing all those other images that have atracted so many comments and interesting exchange of thoughts from so many people, I've found this yet "commentless" one waiting for me no doubt ;-)
Actually I like it very much, because it's not an imediatly eye catching image, but hidden in its aparently simplicity there are of course may things that we can say about it.
The maze like structure so evident in the photo, is one of the things that I really like about it and that we can easily use as a description of life... The maze! so many roads that we can choose, each one "opening" in different little world of its own.
The woman standing alone, lost in her work can be seen has our own self, just waiting to make its next choice and move on.
The art and the lights also help to make the image stronger and yes! I have to say that it was indeed very well seen... A portrait of life!!
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