The concept of time is a timeless topic. Its derivatives are endless - nanoseconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, eons, or lightyears. A clever presentation at the photography and video gallery, sepiaEYE, Bounce takes viewers inside time through its exploration of passing states of change or flux. Transitory moments that in many cases can never be repeated exactly the same way, are captured in photography, video and lightbox works created by eleven artists.

OSAMU JAMES NAKAGAWA

Rain from the series Ma-Between the Past 2003-2005

© Osamu James Nakagawa Courtesy sepiaEYE

One image, Boquillas, Mexico, shot in 1979 by Alex Webb, captures a bewildering moment in time that, albeit playfully, may disturb a viewer’s sense of both reality and perception. In a documentary color photograph of landscape, architecture, and sky, a lone figure is caught mid-air, jumping. Webb’s impeccable composition and tight color palette are immediately obvious. However, what is most intriguing about the image is the small-scale figure jumping at an angle toward his own shadow on a wall.

ALEX WEBB

Boquillas, Mexico, 1979

© Alex Webb Courtesy sepiaEYE

The viewer peers at the figure in the distance from behind the walls of an entryway framing the left and right foreground of the image. The figure appears to be caught at the apex of his jump, the beginning of his descent, and is, in fact, touching the hand of his shadow on the wall. It is almost as if the viewer has been watching a video rewind that has just been paused. Another oddity is that the shadow of the figure is not exact due to the camera angle chosen by Webb. The jumping figure’s legs are parted, whereas the shadow figure’s legs appear closed and as one. This effect seems to suggest that the shadow is perhaps another person jumping simultaneously, giving the figure a high five hand slap in return.

BEATRICE PEDICONI

Variabile #4, 2017

Transparency on Lightbox

© Beatrice Pediconi Courtesy sepiaEYE

Abstract work in the exhibition by Qiana Mestrich and Beatrice Pediconi offers a significantly different take on the theme of the in-between. Pediconi’s images are presented as sculptural objects installed in lightboxes arranged on the floor of the gallery space, and are grounded in an exploration of randomness. The works, from her Variable series, continue her engagement with a variety of mediums including Polaroids, large format prints, video, and artist’s books. Pediconi’s Variable images capture random moments in time orchestrated by the artist’s process of adding oil paint to water. The results, large format transparencies backlit by lightboxes, display particular moments of painterly amorphous shapes that shifted and changed with each passing second of Pediconi’s making of the work.

RAGHUBIR SINGH

Transplanting Paddy, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir, 1983

© Succesion Raghubir Singh Courtesy sepiaEYE

A wide variety of work is on display in Bounce, and it becomes more and more interesting as one understands the theme of the exhibition and the intentions behind each artist’s work. Additional participating artists include: Atul Bhalla, Bhupendra Karia, Nandita Raman, Osamu James Nakagawa, Pamela Singh, Raghubir Singh, Rebecca Norris Webb, and Vivan Sundaram. Books by several of the artists are available for review in the gallery, revealing vast bodies of work made by many of the artists, and highlighting the striking convergence of their work, together, in Bounce.

Bounce at sepiaEYE is on view through December 2, 2017.