Steve Dzerigian – Logic of the Subconcious: Photographic Shadow Box Collages

August 2nd through the 31st, 2024
Opening Reception: August 2nd (during the First Friday Art Walk), 5 – 7:30 p.m. at NewZone Gallery
Artist’s Talk and Discussion: Saturday, August 3rd, at 1 p.m. at the Emerald Art Center

Emerald Art Center
500 Main St, Springfield, OR 97477

NewZone Gallery Klausmeier Room
110 E 11th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401
(541) 683-0759
Tuesday through Sunday, 12-6 p.m. First Friday till 8 p.m.
Photographyatoregon.org
Free and open to the public

A photographic exploration of time, space, and meaning emerges through the juxtaposition of symbolic, image elements.

The works featured in this exhibition consist of three dimensionally layered, collage constructions, juxtaposing elements that feel they belong together much like poet, Robinson Jeffers described his masonry building technique, “Stone loving stone.” In the construction of his “Tor” House in Carmel, California, Jeffers would choose, roll, and maneuver each irregularly shaped stone until it felt as though it was meant to fit with its neighbors in the wall.

Rather than leading with conscious preconceptions in the beginning, I tend to follow clues in real world exploration. When I encounter something that resonates meaningfully with my core, an immediate progression of unforced feelings and thoughts follow. Flowing with the current or “listening” rather than “talking”, I allow myself to drift away from conscious deliberation or internal dialogue so that the empirical and intuitive can be my guides when making images . Once enough finished examples reveal related content and form, conscious decisions are integrated as I develop further the series, maintaining as much of the original spontaneity and openness as possible.

This exhibition is titled “Logic of the Subconscious”, because a personally symbolic pattern emerged through the elements, placement, and combinations chosen without preplanning.

Using simple, adapted meditation techniques in the process of observation, I follow intuitive feelings when exposing with the camera. These seem to flow from the reservoir of memory and the subconscious as quick reflexes or emerge gradually from a meditative or dreamlike state. After developing the film by hand, a variety of techniques in “wet” darkroom printing, toning, occasionally hand coloring, followed up by cutting, pasting, and finally shadow box framing are used to produce images that follow an unbroken spirit of connection from the initial experiences to their final presentation.

Weaving history, philosophy, and the natural world with art making, Steve Dzerigian adopted photography as his primary investigative and contemplative tool. The activities of photography and teaching it became his life’s work. He instructed field workshops for the University of California, Santa Cruz Extension from 1977 through 2007. For the Ansel Adams Gallery Photography Workshop in Yosemite, from 1984 to 1990, he was an assistant instructor and served as director one of those years. In 2002, he was co-coordinator for the “Ansel Adams Centennial Symposium in Yosemite, Edges and Intersections: The Evolution of Change”. Devoted to facilitating art and education in Central California for more than forty-five years, he has served as curator, juror, and consultant for many exhibitions, competitions, and media events, in addition to teaching photography full-time at Fresno City College.

https://www.stevedzerigian.com