Public vs. Private: Who Owns the Light?

 
From ten feet away it appears that in Tied Up/Tied Down, Sean Slemon has filled a shadow box with bits of leafy foliage and then overlaid lengths of orange ribbon in Xs in front to enclose the space, interrupt the gaze, and rupture any Romantic connection between viewers and this bit of Nature. Slemon, whose medium is the installation, has placed this work in an alcove in the CUAC gallery, so that one approaches it straight on, rather than walking along a wall where the initial view is close up. As the viewer draws near, the illusion collapses into a digital photograph of a tree bound by the plastic tape used in urban settings to support and control trees planted in concrete surroundings: the work not of gardeners but of architects and engineers for whom plants are versatile ornaments compromised by high maintenance costs. visit 15bytes for more...