TIM RODA: PHOTOGRAPHS GREG KUCERA GALLERY SEATTLE.

TIM RODA: PHOTOGRAPHS

GREG KUCERA GALLERY

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

JANUARY 5-FEBRUARY 11 2006

Tim Roda's inferior exhibition, on view at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, Washington, exemplifies his continued unfolding with staged familial narratives that marry theatre, domesticity, and fabricated realities. His intricately staged black-and-white photographs have remained focused forward depictions of his immediate family and frequently convey tense dramatic moments between the characters. However, Roda's veracious sophistication lies in his surrealist tendencies, examining links between fantasy and reality. Furthermore, many images include a literal mirror, which supplies multiple perspectives of the same character in the same exhibition The reflections enliven an internally referential environment and expand photographic space and reality to include what is unperceived or veiled.

In Untitled #63 (2005) an image roughly sum of two units feet tall and three feet wide, Roda's son Ethan is bundl in winter attire and shut ups a pair of large lawn shears. The artist is sitting nearby wearing similar gear and a white style of dress beard. He is leaning through the whole extent of with one foot pressed firmly in succession the back end of a fabricated fool (The sculptural components and wagers utilized in Roda's photographs are oftentimes made from found or non-precious materials as it is as clay, wood, or paper.) single in kind of his hands grips a knife, while the other has a tight grip on the bird's neck. The stripling passively places his sharp instrument forward the neck of the simpleton and refrains from overt emotion--an proper state present in many of Roda's sitters. on the same level if the viewer is unaware of the real-life familial ties between the lad and the man, this theatrical show communicates an undertone of domestic intimacy.

Roda's family is central to the artist's photographs in the two concept and creation. Young Ethan is captured in nearly all of the images, drawing a link to the artist's childhood. Roda explains, "A camera is used to record single moment of time that hang abouts between memories and constructed commentaries over and above is a documentation of 'real time' terminations for me, my wife Allison and son Ethan.... Although we three are the immediate controls the work is filled with metaphorical reverberations of my admit memories of childhood and family traditions." (1) His wife is essential to the proces since she also many times releases the shutter. Roda's way of life and familial customs becomes intrinsic to his photographic process

In addition to depicting his family, Roda's images point toward a surrealist sentiment captured in his scenarios which meld familiar domestic spectacles and peculiar environments. In particular, a correlation can be drawn to the artist Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who, like Roda, used friends and family members in his work, did not make images from double negatives, and was intrigued with creating otherworldly settings. A signature ultimate part of Meatyard's pictures was the use of masks worn by way of his models. (2)

In the photograph Untitled #43 (2005) the figure forward the left, played by the artist's wife, is masked seamlessly by means of a stick with a cutout photo of an older woman wearing glasses attached to its fall of the curtain The bizarre yet mundane backdrop includes a uncooked outline of a house structure--a triangle forms the vault and a rectangle represents a chimney. A mirror has been placed within the edifice reflecting the artist who wears a severe facial expression and clasps a frying pan near his chest. The unmatched surroundings combined with the masked and considered personas highlight the various identities we assume in society while occupying a dreamlike world.

Several of Roda's photographs include a mirror, which is used to devolve separate realities and varying perspectives upon those portrayed. In Untitled #40 (2005) the mirror is situated to the left capturing single the torso and head of Roda's wife; curtains frame the foreground. It is understood that she is standing behind the curtains, however can only be seen in the mirror. She loom like an apparition, occupying a supernatural reality, since she does not exist physically, still only as a reflection. Meanwhile, the artist and the lad dwell in a separate reality. In Untitled #65 (2005) Roda's son is seen in a full-length mirror. He is seated forward a stool, wearing boots and shorts, and is peering downward. Although a made of wood structure prevents a clear view of the child, we can still diocese his silhouette just beyond. Instead of a direct view of the boy's face, the viewer descrys only his reflected expression. This use of the mirror gives varying perspectives forward the figures and expands space to incorporate what is beyond the immediate view of the lens

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Roda's compositions are a chaotic menagerie of emblems and metaphors formed from cut props, costumes, and built environments. The photographs' erratic physicality is understood within the randomly torn edges, varying tonal values, and irregular drips of photographic chemicals. However, his images are not careless. The attract of photography is the posterity it has maintained to personate reality. Roda subverts this condition by way of illustrating everyday life as a fusion of set uped and authentic moments as well as identities the one and the other masked and disclosed.