Art now

Author: Michael Nevadomski

In the middle of Winter Term, it is not altogether surprising that you can find snowflakes and trees in the same place. Inside the Museum of Art, however, is an entirely different story. No need to call Emmie Donadio just yet, though: the museum does not have a hole in the roof, and spontaneous oaks aren't sprouting out of the hardwood. It's just the new exhibit, featuring the work of the eminent Brooklyn duo Mike and Doug Starn.

As identical twins, the Starns have been taking photographs and sharing a collaborative vision from the age of thirteen. "They often forget who took which photograph, or who came up with which idea," said Sarah Jamison '06, an associate at HackelBury Fine Art of London, which represents the Starns' work. "Sometimes they finish each others' sentences."

As the exhibit notes, the Starns' work is characterized by an avid interest in scientific investigation and frequent experimentation in photographic technology. Part photography, part science, entirely art, the brothers work in conjunction with several prominent research labs to provide material and images for their work. "Structure of Thought 16," a long, vellum-like strip that, at first glance, appears to be silhouettes of grass roots or misty treetops, is actually an inked cyclical printout of the active synapses of a mouse's brain. "Structure of Thought 16" reflects the artists' attempt to bring the viewer's attention to nature's own "calligraphy" and the unity of structures present in the natural world.

Trees pervade the Starns' work, and many of their images come from the parks of their New York City home. The Starns ink each photo in sections onto gambi paper (a very thin Japanese tissue), wax them and piece them together over a frame. After the image is varnished, multiple pictures are layered over one another, as in the case of "Structure of Thought 10 & 11," which layers branch like neural patterns, called dendrites, beneath silhouettes of bare leafless trees. The result pulls and plays between these layers, giving depth and dimension to the branches, while retaining the effect of a visual echo and pointing to the inherent similarity between the structure of the human brain and tree branches.

"The word 'beauty' in the art world tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth of some critics," said Jamison. "But I don't hesitate to use it in regard to their work. It is truly beautiful."

Through the generosity of the Marianne Boeski '89 Contemporary Photography, Film and Video Acquisition Fund, the Museum of Art was able to acquire "Structure of Thought 19," a work distinguished not only by its smaller size, but by its focus on empty space and light. Whereas "Structure of Thought 10 & 11" primarily uses darkness as the overwhelming absence as well as absorption of light, the trees of "19" have delicate branches that blend with the shadows of the background dendrites. In stark contrast to the thick branches and monolithic blackness of its companion pieces, the light filters through tiny leaves not present in the other pieces, and their green tint gives off a delicate, jewel-like luminescence. As for the stipulations of the Boeski Fund, this work was selected by a committee of students in conjunction with last year's "Collecting Photography Now" class, under the guidance of Chief Curator Emmie Donadio.

The exhibit's most prominent pieces come from the series alleverythingthatisyou, a wall-sized, slide-like collection of plexi-mounted photographs of snowflakes. Along with painstaking care and patience, taking these photographs required special masks that redirected breath behind the face and - no joke - high-resolution cameras acquired from a contract with NASA's microphotography labs. Taken near the Starns' home near Jay Peak, Vt., the series evokes the work of Dr. Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, whose work in photographic microscopy first postulated in 1888 that no two "dendritic crystals" were alike.

In 2004 Mike and Doug Starn were commissioned by the Arts for Transit program to install a permanent exhibit at the South Ferry Station as a part of the post-9/11 reconstruction of lower Manhattan. That exhibit - their largest yet - entitled "See It Split, See It Change," opens next month.