RITUAL SPACE: Vaughan Judge

 16 March 2006 – 22 April 2006

Vaughan Judge’s new body of work consists of large color photographs that consider how the space within which religion and myth traditionally have power or meaning has shifted—perhaps dramatically—in the postmodern era. Each work in this series shows contemporary, somewhat normal-seeming people or objects standing for accepted narratives of Christianity, Greek mythology, or other belief systems.

All the scenes in the photographs are shot in a Scottish basement with low ceilings, bare brick walls, and cement support posts. In Temptation of Mary 1, four young women— possibly still teenagers—sweep, vacuum and dust up a room replete with a giant snakelike form folding down from the rafters, two white angels, and garlands of red roses. In the center sits “Mary,” in her black halter and blue jeans, on a high wooden stool with her hands folded demurely and her legs crossed. By Temptation of Mary 2, the angels and roses have gone, a smaller snake spits from the overhead rafter, and two couples dance and hold each other closely. In this image, Mary, now standing awkwardly and as if in pain, is decidedly several months pregnant.

George and the Angel and Pegasus offer exotic and beautiful reincarnations of the fabled stories, here with masks and wall drawings forming the backdrops for tales made disturbing in their supposedly middle-class environments. Sisyphus and Monstrous Tales, the only black and white images in the exhibition, foreground an apparently ordinary Scotsman, perhaps a neighbor, in the same bizarre basement setting.

Vaughan Judge is a consummate photographer whose concerns with color content, storytelling, and the processes of photography are those of artist and teacher together. Judge works with photograms, scarified or drawn-on negatives, and chromogenic and silver gelatin prints. He is Chair of the Photography Department at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and his work is included in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Dow Jones Company, and Navigator Foundation collections, among others.

This is the artist’s second solo exhibition in New York.

Vaughan Judge’s new body of work consists of large color photographs that consider how the space within which religion and myth traditionally have power or meaning has shifted—perhaps dramatically—in the postmodern era. Each work in this series shows contemporary, somewhat normal-seeming people or objects standing for accepted narratives of Christianity, Greek mythology, or other belief systems.

All the scenes in the photographs are shot in a Scottish basement with low ceilings, bare brick walls, and cement support posts. In Temptation of Mary 1, four young women— possibly still teenagers—sweep, vacuum and dust up a room replete with a giant snakelike form folding down from the rafters, two white angels, and garlands of red roses. In the center sits “Mary,” in her black halter and blue jeans, on a high wooden stool with her hands folded demurely and her legs crossed. By Temptation of Mary 2, the angels and roses have gone, a smaller snake spits from the overhead rafter, and two couples dance and hold each other closely. In this image, Mary, now standing awkwardly and as if in pain, is decidedly several months pregnant.

George and the Angel and Pegasus offer exotic and beautiful reincarnations of the fabled stories, here with masks and wall drawings forming the backdrops for tales made disturbing in their supposedly middle-class environments. Sisyphus and Monstrous Tales, the only black and white images in the exhibition, foreground an apparently ordinary Scotsman, perhaps a neighbor, in the same bizarre basement setting.

Vaughan Judge is a consummate photographer whose concerns with color content, storytelling, and the processes of photography are those of artist and teacher together. Judge works with photograms, scarified or drawn-on negatives, and chromogenic and silver gelatin prints. He is Chair of the Photography Department at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and his work is included in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Dow Jones Company, and Navigator Foundation collections, among others.

This is the artist’s second solo exhibition in New York.