Narowla I, 9′ x 8’8″, 1971, After Stella, 2016

48 x 42 inches
inkjet print, aluminum frame

The Polish Village pieces are derived from photographs I made of black and white reproductions of Frank Stella paintings in a catalog titled “Stella Since 1970” that was designed by Ed Ruscha. For each photograph, I have emptied out the shaped painting at the center and filled it with the title text and fading, yellowing tones of the paper while doing the reverse with the halftone patterning from the painting which now fills the surrounding space.   The fill used is an interpretive function of the computer, much like a riff that gets chopped up in electronic music, in this case from a Photoshop algorithm designed to fill areas of representational photographs seamlessly with texture or pattern to avoid the labor of retouching.  Each work is framed to match the gentle curve of the book page recorded in the photograph I made in mixed light on my living room floor.