by Rea McNamara on November 13, 2015
This week’s opening of Jeff Koons’s Gazing Ball exhibition has us thinking about balls. Blue balls. Big, iridescent blue violet balls communing viewers with the ancient times, the metaphysical, the artistic gesture, the universe—space, the final frontier, and, the reflected self. You. Yeah, you. You’re number one. Self-actualize your human potential by staring at yourself. Because who’s going to do it for you?
So it’s rather apt that instead of staring at Koons’s balls, we’re looking at Zach Dougherty’s version. We’ve previously featured the Portland-based artist, and appreciate this skillful treatment of the subtle transformation: the gazing ball amorphously becoming the historical object. And at least there is a knowing acknowledgement that the source material is malleable, and continually morphs through the ages.
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by Paddy Johnson and Matthew Leifheit on May 28, 2014
Zack Dougherty
Back in 2013 Societe Perrier asked a bunch of artists who make animated gifs to use the file format to pay homage to Andy Warhol. The results where varied, but our favorite comes from Zack Dougherty, who playfully adds the Warhol wig to famed Warhol Campbell’s soup cans, now falling through outer space. Part of the appeal of this GIF is utter absurdity of the image. It’s doubtful Warhol imagined using his wig this way. Another appealing aspect is Dougherty’s blend of animation and cinematic techniques; when that soup can comes hurdling towards you, it’s hard not to wonder how it would look in an IMAX theater. I know GIFs are meant for the browser, but I for one, wouldn’t mind seeing this GIF on the big screen.
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