20x200

After Bierstadt by Jason Burch

Hello, collectors! To compose this note, I'm borrowing the approach New Jersey-based photographer Jason Burch used to create the print that we're presenting to you today—After Bierstadt. To put it crudely, I'm going to cut and paste to give you a taste of what this work is all about. As you can see, though, Jason's approach is far more refined than mine—I hope, at the very least, I'll get points for transparency!

From the newsletter penned when I introduced the series of work—Constructed Environments—that After Bierstadt (along with Ringside) comes from:

Ringside is deceptively simple and smart. One of a series of photomontages by Jason Burch, it's part of a larger experimental practice in art-making. As in the first two photographs we released from him, Natural Selections XI and Natural Selections XIII, Jason's interest in the rich tradition—from Hannah Höch to David Hockney—of creating and re-creating meaning in photographs by plainly altering, omitting and adding information is clear. But where Jason's other images are more cerebral, Ringside [and After Bierstadt, too!] is both sophisticated and a little silly—offering a potent one-two punch (couldn't resist).

And straight from Jason's own artist statement about this print:

I really like the idea of using a painting as a blueprint for construction. It is at once both a profound idea and yet contains absurd comedy about it, as well. Albert Bierstadt's painting, I think, is a great foil here, as his idealized view of the American landscape represents an unattainable goal.

...Recently, I made a series of videos on a large construction project in Montclair, NJ. The scale of the project was immense, much like the scene depicted in After Bierstadt. One video depicts two men discussing the rebuilding of a hill next to a housing development and the possibility of adding a water feature. Because, we can always make things better.

Yes, we can always make things better—some days it's just easier than others. Jen will be back tomorrow with some more elegantly composed prose (no pressure, lady!) to accompany a trio of explosive new photographs.

— Sara