John Reuter: Investigations

When I fwas first introduced to the Polaroid 20x24 Camera in 1978, I was at the peak of the SX-70 work. I was neither ready nor willing to work with it. I am not sure what changed my mind two years later but I imagine destiny had something to do with it. I am also not certain whether it was destiny for the sake of my work or for the sake of my clients. It took nearly four years for me to find a way for the 20x24 to work for me.- In those years I worked extensively with what came to be known as the Image Transfer process. My format by now was 8x10, which was a huge leap up from SX-70's 3 inch square. The notion of working on paper was now an important element in the work. Aspects of drawing and painting began to compete more strongly with image content for what constituted the final piece. Scale began to interest me and scale was right in front of me. The 20x24 kept calling and I was finally able to answer. Not by utilizing it for what it was renowned for, saturated color and frightening sharpness but rather one simple thing; scale. It was no easy path to perfect Image Transfer on 20x24 and in fact what finally made the worksuccessful for me was embracing the lack of perfection in the process. Highly influential at this point in time was an exhibit of artist Jim Dine's work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Titled "Nancy Outside in July", the exhibit featured reworked prints in a variety of printmaking techniques. I was struck with the way he used what process gave him as a jumping off point to enhance and transform the image. His aggressive use of drawing technique to really work the piece as an object opened me up to treat my Image Transfers in a similar way.
The last piece in the puzzle was in the image content. For several years I had gotten away from the collage work I developed in my SX-70s. For a long time I had worked figuratively but not in the surrealist narrative I had once done. In the early 80's I had workied breifly with the creation of an androgynous figure, made by double exposing my image with that of my wife, Karen. By 1985 I returned to this notion and decided to make a series of it. I created a cast of characters of these -androgynous figures, perhaps ten or more that I would use over and over again. The figures were on clear SX-70 positives and could be placed over a background and rephotographed. I chose Rennaissance backgrounds, found in small reproductions from catalogs and books. These collages would be rephotographed and "printed" to the 20x24 camera and transferred. The first transfers were transitional and the painting was done too heavily. In 1985 I had begun painting independently of the transfer reworking and it finally allowed me to come back to the transfers with a lighter touch. By 1987 it all fell into place and the Androgyn series was begun. Finally the image content and physical execution of the pieces were in harmony for me. The historical journey of the Androgyn was depicted in ancient looking images. The Androgyn figure was clearly a surrogate for me, in fact it often looked very much like me(after all it was half me). I had long had an interest in androgyny, not so much from a transsexual context but rather from the perspective of it being a more complete being, embodying the best of male and female characteristics. I was however intrigued by the erotic ambiguity it portrayed. With this figure, I could enter into historic scenes and interact with the original narrative. In many cases the androgyn sought to change the outcome of the suggested narrative. Thus, in the "Androgynous Allegory of Painting" (after Vermeer) the Androgyn seeks to interfere with the male gaze of the artist depicted. In other events, the Androgyn attempted to prevent the Annunciation, toyed with Cupid, sat on the Pope's lap or discreetly touched passersby.

Continue with John Reuter: Investigations

	John Reuter: Investigations When I fwas first introduced to the Polaroid 20x24 Camera in 1978, I was at the peak of the SX-70 work. I was neither ready nor willing to work with it. I am not sure what changed my mind two years later but I imagine destiny had something to do with it. I am also not certain whether it was destiny for the sake of my work or for the sake of my clients. It took nearly four years for me to find a way for the 20x24 to work for me.- In those years I worked extensively with what came to be known as the Image Transfer process. My format by now was 8x10, which was a huge leap up from SX-70's 3 inch square. The notion of working on paper was now an important element in the work. Aspects of drawing and painting began to compete more strongly with image content for what constituted the final piece. Scale began to interest me and scale was right in front of me. The 20x24 kept calling and I was finally able to answer. Not by utilizing it for what it was renowned for, saturated color and frightening sharpness but rather one simple thing; scale. It was no easy path to perfect Image Transfer on 20x24 and in fact what finally made the worksuccessful for me was embracing the lack of perfection in the process. Highly influential at this point in time was an exhibit of artist Jim Dine's work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Titled "Nancy Outside in July", the exhibit featured reworked prints in a variety of printmaking techniques. I was struck with the way he used what process gave him as a jumping off point to enhance and transform the image. His aggressive use of drawing technique to really work the piece as an object opened me up to treat my Image Transfers in a similar way. The last piece in the puzzle was in the image content. For several years I had gotten away from the collage work I developed in my SX-70s. For a long time I had worked figuratively but not in the surrealist narrative I had once done. In the early 80's I had workied breifly with the creation of an androgynous figure, made by double exposing my image with that of my wife, Karen. By 1985 I returned to this notion and decided to make a series of it. I created a cast of characters of these -androgynous figures, perhaps ten or more that I would use over and over again. The figures were on clear SX-70 positives and could be placed over a background and rephotographed. I chose Rennaissance backgrounds, found in small reproductions from catalogs and books. These collages would be rephotographed and "printed" to the 20x24 camera and transferred. The first transfers were transitional and the painting was done too heavily. In 1985 I had begun painting independently of the transfer reworking and it finally allowed me to come back to the transfers with a lighter touch. By 1987 it all fell into place and the Androgyn series was begun. Finally the image content and physical execution of the pieces were in harmony for me. The historical journey of the Androgyn was depicted in ancient looking images. The Androgyn figure was clearly a surrogate for me, in fact it often looked very much like me(after all it was half me). I had long had an interest in androgyny, not so much from a transsexual context but rather from the perspective of it being a more complete being, embodying the best of male and female characteristics. I was however intrigued by the erotic ambiguity it portrayed. With this figure, I could enter into historic scenes and interact with the original narrative. In many cases the androgyn sought to change the outcome of the suggested narrative. Thus, in the "Androgynous Allegory of Painting" (after Vermeer) the Androgyn seeks to interfere with the male gaze of the artist depicted. In other events, the Androgyn attempted to prevent the Annunciation, toyed with Cupid, sat on the Pope's lap or discreetly touched passersby. Continue with John Reuter: Investigations