David Maisel, “Library of Dust, 2257”, 2005

#somereallygoodones, #davidmaisel, #libraryofdust

David Maisel is based in the Bay Area and is best known for his air-borne abstractions of the earth below. His “Library of Dust” is a departure, a series of still lifes of copper canisters containing unclaimed cremated remains of former patients of the Oregon State Insane Asylum. There has been some oxidation between the metal and the ashes, creating a unusually colorful surface offering unexpected evidence of life, or, at least, activity after death. This particular container has what could be the outline of an atomic explosion if looked at vertically or a river flowing into the sea if looked at from overhead. You want to touch the alien lichen-like surface. Unexpectedly a pinkish vertical band has the color of flesh. The series has a sense of completion; it truly is a library with volumes on shelves.

The artist is particularly skillful at putting reflective surfaces — copper — together with flat pastel and. white. The latter looks. like beer stopped in the process of foaming out of the top of a mug and gathering at the base. The way in which the chemistry has leached out through the seam speaks to a reactive interior like a bomb or grenade or orgasmic overflow.

There are so many unknowns.

The artist describes the work: “The vestiges of paper labels with the names of the dead, the etching of the copper, and the intensely hued colors of the blooming minerals combine to individuate the canisters. These deformations sometimes evoke the celestial – the northern lights, the moons of some alien planet, or constellations in the night sky. Sublimely beautiful, yet disquieting, the enigmatic photographs in ‘Library of Dust’ are meditations on issues of matter and spirit. *1

Boom!

*1 from the artist’s website

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