ARTnews: Kendall Messick at Hemphill 09
2009
In this show, titled “The Projectionist,” Kendall Messick presented an intimate yet realistic portrait of his friend the folk artist Gordon Brinckle. The 14 photographs and 30-minute documentary skirt sentimentality, but Messick never lets the tenderness he feels for his subject overpower his photographer’s eye.
Neighbors during Messick’s childhood, the photographer and the 90-year-old Brinckle bonded when they became reacquainted as adults and embarked on a seven-year artistic collaboration that lasted until Brinckle’s death in 2007. This exhibition consisted of two contrasting series of photographs, which added up to a multifaceted narrative. The black-and-white “Upstairs” series shows the elderly Brinckle in his daily life, while the color-saturated “Downstairs” series places him in the Shalimar Theatre, a faux-vintage, nine-seat movie theater that he lovingly assembled in his basement. Messick photographed the eccentric and passionate projectionist, documented his blueprints for the theater, and helped preserve the Shalimar as a work of visionary art.
Messick’s black-and-white photos are dense with texture and formally rich, with romantic and melancholy undertones. In Shaving (2005), the harsh reality of living in a 90-year-old body is rendered in stark light without emotion. In contrast, the color prints vibrate with an artificial and burlesque esthetic: cadmium reds and acidic greens compete for attention with gold brocade, satin curtains, and Brinckle’s larger-than-life personality. In Opening Act (2007), Brinckle poses in the center of the stage, his jaunty confidence palpable as he is transformed by his own creation.
Messick’s skill as a portraitist lies in his willingness to meld fact and fantasy. These photos exist in a realm between reality and imagination, where staged poses and theatrical color intensify authenticity rather than undermine it.
—Cara Ober
Neighbors during Messick’s childhood, the photographer and the 90-year-old Brinckle bonded when they became reacquainted as adults and embarked on a seven-year artistic collaboration that lasted until Brinckle’s death in 2007. This exhibition consisted of two contrasting series of photographs, which added up to a multifaceted narrative. The black-and-white “Upstairs” series shows the elderly Brinckle in his daily life, while the color-saturated “Downstairs” series places him in the Shalimar Theatre, a faux-vintage, nine-seat movie theater that he lovingly assembled in his basement. Messick photographed the eccentric and passionate projectionist, documented his blueprints for the theater, and helped preserve the Shalimar as a work of visionary art.
Messick’s black-and-white photos are dense with texture and formally rich, with romantic and melancholy undertones. In Shaving (2005), the harsh reality of living in a 90-year-old body is rendered in stark light without emotion. In contrast, the color prints vibrate with an artificial and burlesque esthetic: cadmium reds and acidic greens compete for attention with gold brocade, satin curtains, and Brinckle’s larger-than-life personality. In Opening Act (2007), Brinckle poses in the center of the stage, his jaunty confidence palpable as he is transformed by his own creation.
Messick’s skill as a portraitist lies in his willingness to meld fact and fantasy. These photos exist in a realm between reality and imagination, where staged poses and theatrical color intensify authenticity rather than undermine it.
—Cara Ober
