Saturday, August 22, 2009

Jon Feinstein's Pure Aesthetics & Small Signs

Jon Feinstein recently updated his website with a number of new projects. Among my favorites are Pure Aesthetics & Small Signs - two very different, but equally intriguing series'. In the statement for Pure Aesthetics, Feinstein asserts:


"Pure Aesthetics rejects the tendency to find meaning and substance from superficial visual experience. Building on Clement Greenberg's ideas about abstract expressionism and the need for a tactile and purely visual perception of artwork, the images have little concept beyond their physical properties. Shiny, colorful, ostensibly inviting materials are laid flat and rendered into abstract patterns that at times appear to descend back into space or contain some code of visual complexity. While the "critical" viewer may demand a layered concept, there is actually nothing to explore beyond the purely physical surface."


From "Pure Aesthetics"
© Jon Feinstein



From "Pure Aesthetics"
© Jon Feinstein



From "Pure Aesthetics"
© Jon Feinstein


In his statement for Small Signs, Feinstein explains:

"These photos attempt to offer a visual interpretation of the ominous intersections between man-made objects and our natural landscape. I am interested in the impact of the way we live now, in constant communion with our surroundings. Rather than staging elaborately crafted narratives, I hope to find these elements of science fiction in the everyday."


From "Small Signs"
© Jon Feinstein



From "Small Signs"
© Jon Feinstein



From "Small Signs"
© Jon Feinstein


Also make sure to check out From Russia With Love and The Serpent and the Rainbow.