erutplucssculpture

Ian Pedigo image-based works are created using the same thinking process as the sculptural objects that make up the bulk of his practice. Pedigo utilizes a unique blend of chance operations combining various materials—natural, industrial, found, appropriated—and working in response or activating the space where the objects are placed. This additive process of layering objects can be connected to, or perhaps working against the Joseph Beuys’ notion of space and objects being filled with traumatic memory. In these photographs, Pedigo takes re-purposed images and layers them in a particular way to create new images. In his mind, these images are the inverse of his sculpture. He has been building up the idea of conflating the object and image for a while, and these works are the illustrative constructions of process and selection. While Pedigo sees the connection to his sculptural practice, I see the connection to the fundamental act of taking a photograph, the process of selecting and de-selecting inherent in the act of cropping, and framing when behind the lens. In some ways, the found images that he has re-purpose re-inscribe the very notion and act of photography while still presenting the complexities of the relationship between images and objects.

[all images Ian Pedigo; from top to bottom: (L to R): Stream, Tree on Hill, Canyon, all 2011, Archival print on aluminum, 20 x 30 inches; Library, 2011, Archival print on aluminum, 20 x 30 inches; Glacial Outcropping, 2011, Framed archival inkjet prints, 25 x 20 inches overall]