Artist: Amanda Quinlan
Exhibition: Fog
Media: Mixed- Media, Photography
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Max L. Gatov Gallery East
Website: amandaquinlan.com
Instagram: @anamandaquinlan
Amanda Quinlan is an undergraduate student in the CSULB School of Art. She is in the Photography program. Amanda’s work consisted of straightforward photography, but also included interestingly adapted prints from the ink of polaroid film in a process I didn’t quite understand when she explained it to me.
The photography she took was sharp and detailed. She said her intention was to capture the character of old town Pasadena. As for the prints of the Fog collection, they were blurry – abstract even. There were no shapes or images to be clearly seen, which I liked in contrast to the clarity of her other piece, the photographs. The prints were gloomy, soft, with jagged outlines. From a distance, it was hard to make them out, this is a piece that must be viewed up close to appreciate.
Amanda’s work explores the relationship between history and fantasy. More specifically, it explores the space in between objective reality and the simulacra humans create to meet that reality. The work is intentionally abstract in that sense, that its not real, only what we perceive it to be. Yet at the same time, the image is so familiar to us that our brain is able to attribute the image of fog to it.
At first, I didn’t think much of this piece, yet as I heard her explain the painstaking process necessary to create it, and the thoughts behind the work, I came to appreciate it much more. This idea of objective reality is one we’ve spoken about in class and one that intrigues me, so I was amused to see it as a motivating factor in this art. Overall, my experience at the art exhibit was a pleasant one. Not only did I get to speak with Amanda about her work, but I got to see so many other impressive works of art as well.
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