Erin McNeil’s ‘Recon(figure)’ lightens up a dark room
BY MEGAN HUXLEY
Graduate student Erin McNeil’s photography exhibition, “Recon(figure),” was held at the Non-Fiction Gallery on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. The exhibition marked the completion of McNeil’s Master of the Fine Arts in Photography.
“Recon(figure)” was not your typical photography exhibition. Technology was the central theme and McNeil used it throughout the displayed work. A majority of the exhibition was composed of Graphics Interchange Format, or GIFs. But iPhone rubbings and an interactive video projection were also be found around the exhibition.
Where did McNeil draw inspiration from?
“My husband and I were living in this really tiny apartment, like 400 square feet between the two of us. He really loved technology, his Xbox, and things like that. It was this part of our relationship I’d never seen before,” said McNeil. “We used to joke that we didn’t have lamps, but we lived by monitor light. It became this pervasive thing in our relationship that really affected me when I started graduate school. All of the images are shot using only the naturally occurring light from the pieces of technology.”
Technology was the central theme, but it was obvious that light was the focus while walking around the exhibition. The gallery was dimly lit, and the main source of light, much like the pieces themselves, was the light emitting from the work. Ambient music, provided by Moffenzeef, heightened the feeling of being in a video game or piece of McNeil’s work.
“A lot of the work is influenced by GIF imaging. Why do we want things to loop? What is it about the loop that is such a computer thought, and do we want things to continue endlessly?” said McNeil.
Many of the GIFs embodied a sense of loneliness and monotony. A set of hands thumbing an iPhone screen emitting a bright white light. The computer screen lit up in the dark room with a glass of water set beside it. A lone man on a couch continually bringing a cell phone to and from his face. All of the GIFs were of similar subject matter and were hauntingly accessible to what so many students find themselves doing on a regular basis.
One of the most popular pieces of “Recon(figure)” was the interactive video projection by McNeil and Ross Fish titled “Breathing.” A simple touch set the still image into motion. Attendees simultaneously pressed their hand to the screen to send the chest of a faceless man into short, staggered breaths.
The deep thought process behind her art reflects her background in philosophy. Her undergraduate degree is in philosophy, but she didn’t think it held the answers she was looking for.
“It couldn’t account for some of the things I wanted it to. I thought a deeper understanding of aesthetics made sense,” said McNeil. “It’s also really cool to live among artists. It is a totally different way of thinking and reacting. It’s inspiring to me.”
“Recon(figure)” was a means to explore these modern, technological ideas that she feels affect our existence.
Though this exhibition celebrated the end of her degree in photography, McNeil’s time at SCAD is not over quite yet. She is working on an art history degree that she will complete in winter 2014. She hopes to continue working on new media art and become a professor upon graduation. Before the show’s end McNeil’s gave some advice to photography students.
“You shouldn’t put any arbitrary limits on what photography can or cannot do,” she said. “It is an expanding field that is redefining itself. If we think something isn’t a photograph, then what does that say about how we originally defined the boundaries? So be open and explorative.”
