NIGHTSHIFT
INSTAGRAM post from SEPT 13, 2020,
printed on glass 23 x 23 inch
When the pandemic hit New York, I began posting daily on INSTAGRAM as a spontaneous way to work through what I see, hear and feel, mostly in my LOWER EAST SIDE neighborhood. I record with my cellphone and a hidden body camera, the latter so as not to disturb the course of events.
I took this picture from my studio, looking down onto SARA D. ROOSEVELT PARK in CHINATOWN, NEW YORK CITY at 12:14am, night of SEPTEMBER 13, 2020. Just before going home. I used a cheap Chinese telescope mounted on my cellphone, hence the round porthole format. The man in the center is illuminated by the glare of a park lantern. He slumps - whether asleep or stoned, I don’t know. It is a spot where people buy drugs, so he may have waited for customers. That’s why I called it NIGHTSHIFT.
The theatre I have seen unfolding mostly in my immediate neighborhood during these months has simply been overwhelming, the narrative including everything, from the dystopian worlds of science fiction to art history. CORMACK McCARTHY or JG BALLARD. The ready mades of modern art, the occasional JEFF KOONS.
In my NIGHTSHIFT scene with the man in the orange sweater framed by the dark leaves, I find the beauty of chiaroscuro painting, CARAVAGGIO, GEORGES DE LA TOUR or JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY.
This ambivalence between the compelling and repelling reflects my experience of the present time. I feel it simmering, not knowing if it's cooking gently until tender or is about to boil over …
To date, there are over 500 Instagram posts about my pandemic life, many of them views from my studio in the monocular round format.