JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING – TAYLOE PIGGOTT GALLERY is pleased to present Recent Work by renowned artists Doug and Mike Starn. This exhibition showcases work from their latest series Everything is Liquid, on view from February 17th through Aril 2nd, 2023. An opening reception will be held on Friday, February 17th, from 5 - 7 pm; all are invited to attend.
Recent Work presents a selection of pieces that defy the construct and constraints of art medium. The works are made of Ultrachrome K3 Epson ink jets prints on gelatin hand coated Zerkall paper, acrylic paint, Scotch tape, nails and wood, but what are these works? This paradox of materiality is where the Starns’ ontological investigation lies.
This body of work explores how all things are flowing, moving, and finding new form, in ways apparent to the human eye or spanning across and beyond lifetimes. Nothing stays the same; all things are in an endless and constant process of becoming something else. The Starns probe this idea through comparing ceaselessly rising and falling seascapes with mountain-scapes, formed by the gradual yet perpetual turbulence of geologic change. The result is artwork that are neither simply print or painting, nor photography or sculpture, but rather three-dimensional objects of inquiry by their very nature.
“Paintings that are photographs that look like woodcuts and that are painted, in frames, within sculptures of frames, what is real? and further in that direction— what art is real, and what art isn’t? the questions are slippery, they don’t stay still” – Doug and Mike Starn
Seascapes have been a point of investigation in the Starns’ work since the brothers began collaborating at age thirteen. They have always been interested in bodies of water as an entity in constant motion, crashing against itself, ever-changing but always essentially the same, and in capturing the phenomena in a fraction of a second via camera. In this series, the seascapes act as a foil and a point of comparison to mountain-scapes; the indescribably slow-motion of tectonic plates colliding creates similar dynamic and dramatic forms to that of seascapes. Seemingly eternal, with our human timeframe barely a blip in geological time, mountains are a living photograph that we witness in progress over our lifetime. Mountains appear static, but nonetheless the landscapes are changing each second, as the tectonic plates on earth move at a rate from three-fifths of an inch to two inches per year. Imperceptible movement yields and alters mountains through the perpetuity of change.
Inspired by painter Albert Bierstadt’s (1830-1902) use of stereography to paint accurate three-dimensional perspective in his mountain scenes in striking detail, Doug and Mike Starn invert Bierstadt’s process by taking the visual clarity of the high-definition digital photographs and zooming into the images until they begin to fall apart. They destroy the photographic detail and three-dimensional illusion while retaining elements of the scene, all the while stripping out tonality and finding something that looks like a woodcut or engraving mask but is neither. The original high-definition photograph of the mountain or surface of the water was outward-facing and a factual document of objective reality; the resulting work of Everything is Liquid reflects an interior-facing perception of reality.
American artists Doug and Mike Starn are identical twins born in 1961. They work in Beacon, NY in their 40,000 square foot studio, the former Tallix Foundry. First having received international attention at the 1987 Whitney Biennial, the Starns were primarily known for working conceptually with photography and are largely concerned with interconnection and interdependence. Over the past three decades, they have continued to defy categorization, effectively combining traditionally separate disciplines such as photography, sculpture, and architecture—most notably their series Big Bambú. As twins and lifelong collaborators, they are innately and profoundly aware that nothing stands alone, everything is interdependent. Doug and Mike Starn’s immersive Big Bambú architecture/sculptures have been experienced by over 2 million visitors internationally. Their work in glass includes the 90-ft long glass wall façade for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (installed in September 2017), preceded by the permanent installation of monumental glass and metal sculpture on the plaza of the Princeton University Art Museum (fall 2016). The Starns have received many honors including two National Endowment for the Arts Grants in 1987 and 1995; The Bruce Museum Icon Award 2017; The Brendan Gill Prize 2009; The International Center for Photography’s Infinity Award for Fine Art Photography in 1992; and artists in residency at NASA in the mid-nineties. Major artworks by the Starns are represented in collections including: The Museum of Modern Art (NYC); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, (NYC); The Jewish Museum, (NYC); The Israel Museum in Jerusalem; The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC); Moderna Museet (Stockholm); The National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne); Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC); Yokohama Museum of Art (Japan); La Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris); La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris); and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, amongst many others.
