Up Close and Personal: Christopher Bucklow

Jul, 31, 2020

Art

Up Close and Personal: Christopher Bucklow

There is some confusion as to what magic actually is…I believe that magic is art and that art, whether it be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form, is literally magic.”
– Alan Moore

The quote above, from the writer of The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and Swamp Thing, goes on to explain that like magic, art uses symbols, words, and images to challenge or alter our perspectives on the world, each other, and ourselves. Throughout the PhxArt collection, you’ll find mystical and mysterious works that illuminate this very idea, whether they play with colors and composition to create optical illusions, transport viewers to alternate dimensions, or simply elicit a sense of wonder, delight, and mystery. Gilbert Vicario, the Museum’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and the Selig Family Chief Curator, provides insight into one such artwork by Christopher Bucklow.

Guest (M.B., 3:14 p.m., 19th August 1995) (1995) by Christopher Bucklow

“Christopher Bucklow’s enigmatic and luminous contemporary photograph GUEST (M.B., 3:14 P.M., 19th August 1995) is part of the artist’s ongoing series entitled Guest (1993-present). Using a pinhole camera of his own making and featuring 25,000 apertures, Bucklow creates unique cibachrome chromogenic prints of the silhouettes of family, friends, and fellow artists who appear in his dreams. These subjects are drawn using multiple solar images directed through Bucklow’s camera, and the resulting photograms are made by tracing the silhouettes of his models onto large sheets of aluminum foil, pricking them with thousands of small holes, and then laying sheets of photo sensitive paper and exposing them to the sun. Bucklow’s interest in personal mythology, Jungian dream psychology, and metaphor is exemplified in these surreal and electrically charged images.” – Gilbert Vicario