Sundrop © Pelle Cass 
Pins and Flowers © Pelle Cass To create a picture, Pelle
Cass pages through magazines, tears
out images that conform to a preconceived idea, cuts and positions
the snippets on cardboard, sticks colored map pins into the assemblage,
and then he photographs the end product of all his efforts.
An exhibit of his work, Pins, is featured in The Atelier Gallery
at the Griffin Museum September 11 through November 2.
"Among other things, there is a story about color itself
here; how the color of the pins match up to the color in the
pieces of paper I stick them into," says Cass. "And
how the pins also match up to the names of colors as they appear
in several of these pictures.
"Other pictures are monochrome; all blue magazine snippets
with only blue pins, for example. In other pictures, I deliberately
mismatch the pins to the areas of color I place them in. Sometimes,
I think of the pins as pixels, and by placing them here and there
in a pattern, it is as if I am balancing the color of my composition."
Cass says the pins "can suggest aerial views and maps,
color coding, the human figure, vegetation, taxonomy and collecting,
and naturally, pain." He adds that the magazine imagery
often evokes "a foreign world of luxury and ease that seems
deeply strange to me."
"Pelle Cass' creative journey is as interesting to me as
his final photographs," says Paula Tognarelli, executive
director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. "Each photograph
seems to grow out of the nourishment supplied by Cass' experience
of the creative process."
Cass, of Brookline, MA, studied photography at the University
of New Mexico; the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;
and the Minneapolis College of Art. He holds a B.A. in art history
from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
After a hiatus of more than a decade, he resumed photographing
in 2002. He is represented by Gallery Kayafas in Boston and has
participated in many group and solo shows. His work is held in
the collections of many museums, as well as in private collections.
It can be seen at www.pellecass.com.
Cass has been a Polaroid Collection Fellow. He also has been
nominated for the ICA, Boston, Artist's Prize and the Santa Fe
Center for Photography Artist's Prize.
An opening reception for Pins, with the artist, is September
11, 7-8:30 p.m. It is open to all. Please RSVP by September 4.
Cass gives an informal gallery talk on his work and the creative
process behind Pins, on October 1, at 7 p.m. It is free for members
and fulltime students with a valid ID; $7 for nonmembers. Please
RSVP by September 26. |
