Tuesday 31 May 2011

Postcards: Gaye Jackson

When I saw this exhibition of colour photograms of old bottles, I was smitten. Jackson collected dozens of old glass bottles that, according to her artist statement, "once contained medicines, oils, and other domestic products." She found them in an old dump located at the bottom of a lake near an abandoned logging town built in the 1920s. What isn't clear in her statement is whether the lake is dried up or if she found the bottles while scuba diving. Regardless of this detail, her haunting photograms convey the age and stories contained in these bottles. The images resonated with me because when I was growing up on the farm, I would pull on a pair of rubber boots and trek through fields to the tree line  where previous generations dumped their garbage. With each visit, I would find old bottles: mostly Minard's Liniment bottles. My bottles look innocent and ordinary compared to Jackson's images. There isn't much information about Gaye Jackson on the web, but here are two websites that feature some information about her: Gallery 44 Database and IndexG. Jackson's work is intriguing and I am curious to see what she does next.

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