MARK C. STEVENSON
CATEGORICALLY
WRONG
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Categorically Wrong begins with a deceptively simple question: Is this a photographic statement about abstraction, or an abstract statement made through photography?
The works places viewers in a space where those categorical preconceptions exist simultaneously. By offering two philosophically opposed options, the series uncovers how our assumptions about artistic medium shape the way we interpret subject, context, object, and meaning.
Categorically Wrong (continued)
Categorically Wrong begins with a deceptively simple question: Is this a
Photograph? In its most familiar form, photography is presumed to record something that existed in a particular place at a particular moment. Abstraction, by contrast, concerns itself with material, gesture, and self-contained reference. These images refuse to fully inhabit either framework.
The works begin as torn canvas—ripped to varying lengths and widths, painted in differing degrees of translucency, saturation, hue, and luminosity. These fragments are thrown into the air and captured with high-speed cameras before being edited and printed. The final images are color formations of ink on paper, yet their marks originate from paint on canvas suspended in motion. They both reveal and obscure their own making.
So, are these photographs that deconstruct the components and processes of abstract painting? Or autonomous two-dimensional objects—self-contained worlds unto themselves? Perhaps it depends on the mental model through which one chooses to see them. Or perhaps the works are both, simultaneously. They refuse to resolve the question, occupying the unsettled space between photography and pure abstraction, where the act of choosing becomes part of the artwork itself.