Bussert, Hans: -Le Bricoleur-, Sleek Nr. 41, Spring

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Schwendener, Martha, Roe Ethridge: ‘Sacrifice Your Body’, The New York
Times, NYC, March 6, 2014.
Roe Ethridge: ‘Sacrifice Your Body’
Andrew Kreps Gallery
537 West 22nd Street
Chelsea
Through March 29
Roe Ethridge is famous for taking the slick, seductive conceptualism of
Christopher Williams and the Düsseldorf School and injecting it with gritty
digitalism and personal references to create his own brand of emoconceptualism — a more earnest, biographical mode of photography. All of
that is here, as well as his signature way of working in the interstices of art and
commerce, and assembling solo shows that look like group outings. Mr.
Ethridge also moves precariously close to another variant, however. Call it
“bro-conceptualism,” in which sports — specifically football and surfing — and
fashion models are the reigning tropes. Almost half the works here include
these in some form, although presented with characteristic aplomb. In two of
the works, the model is actually holding a football.
What’s also evident is a strain of pathos. The supermodels Gisele Bündchen
and Amber Valletta are aging. A dead fish laid out on granite provides a
memento mori. Several photographs refer to an uncanny incident in which
Mr. Ethridge’s rental car rolled into a canal, without him in it.
A photograph of a human skeleton wearing a Florida Seminoles hat (Mr.
Ethridge’s team) includes a cheesy graphic that says, “Sacrifice Your Body,”
what parents shouted to their kids on the football field where he grew up. It’s
an effective vanitas image cum self-portrait. And yet, it feels a little cheap,
using gallows humor and faux gravitas to obscure this show’s lack of truly
memorable works.
!
Lange, Christy, For This Thing To Happen, Frieze,
#150, London, October 2012.
For This Thing To Happen
Roe Ethridge’s work circulates in the worlds of fashion, commercial and art
photography. Christy Lange considers his ‘chaotic inventory’.
Old Fruit, 2010, c-type print, 127!!!102 cm
Roe Ethridge is an artist based in Brooklyn, USA. A major survey of his work, curated by
Anne Pontégnie, originated at Le Consortium Dijon, France, and opened at Museum M
Leuven, Belgium, on 27 September. His solo exhibition ‘Interiors I’ is on view at Barbara
Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, until 12 October. ‘Interiors ii’ opens at Mai 36 in
Zurich, Switzerland, on 25 October.
Studio with Red Bag, 2009, 130!!100 cm, C-type print
In the vast array of photographs that make up his body of work, Roe Ethridge himself appears
only a few times. In Untitled (Self-Portrait) (2000), taken in 1999, he looks almost boyish,
facing the camera with the collar of his preppy, striped Oxford shirt emerging from his
sweater. Mysteriously, he is sporting a nasty black eye. Later, in Self-Portrait
(Polaroid) (2008), he reappears with longer, shaggy hair, a broad smile on his round,
handsome face and a twinkle in his eye. The Polaroid format suggests it’s a test shot – he
might be standing in for his own model. Another photo from the same group of work shows
him flashing a similarly open smile through his scruffy beard. He’s wearing a navy captain’s
hat and jacket, and is giving someone off-camera a friendly, sheepish wave.
In these self-portraits, as in many of his works, we get only glimpses into Ethridge’s life: it’s
often ambiguous whether the scene in front of the camera is spontaneous or staged. The
groupings of images he assembles for his books and exhibitions are just as likely to include
out-takes of professional models styled for fashion shoots as non-models posing against a
backdrop in his studio. He might focus on the detail of the carpet in his childhood home in
Atlanta, Georgia (Basement Carpet, 2003), or aim at something more distant and generic, as
in Moon (2003); still others are taken at a local surfing spot, or through the window of his
Brooklyn apartment. Some of his editorial commissions have been based on personal
memories, as in theVice magazine spread about ballet students at the Juilliard School,
inspired by the posters his sister used to have in her bedroom; or they might derive from a
Google image search, or a combination of both.
Ethridge sees himself as part of ‘the image service industry’ – an industry that includes
commercial or fashion photography as much as it does art photography.1 He considers the
challenges and parameters of a fashion shoot, a commercial advertisement or an editorial
commission as valid as his own ‘self-assignments’ in or outside of his studio. After all, they
have similar creative conditions and the potential to yield a work of art. When he shows the
products of these various assignments in a single body of work, the individual images rarely
fulfil our expectations for the genre or fit neatly into a predetermined typology: for example,
the face of a model for a ‘Beauty 101’ lipstick shoot for Alluremagazine is also a candid portrait
of a woman with chapped lips; a red bag hanging casually from a lattice in his sun-filled
studio is a deliberately constructed composition. In Ethridge’s photographs, what we expect to
be generic, staged or slick can slip into the spontaneous or personal – or vice-versa – and
before we know it the typologies begin to fall apart.
To make sense of his seemingly schizophrenic, ‘chaotic inventory’ of images (the term he
prefers over ‘archive’, which he finds ‘churchy’)2 Ethridge has to have what he calls a ‘split
personality’; he must be both artist and editor. Ironically, it’s not only this split personality
that holds his photographic inventories together, but a single one: ‘It’s not exactly a diary or a
life-story; it’s more like I have to be there for this thing to happen […] It’s the life of a
photographer who lives in New York in the 2000s. If I didn’t live in New York, it wouldn’t be
the same.’3 This is as close to an admission of realism as he will come; he refuses to settle into
art photography’s pre-determined categories of realism or conceptualism.
Ethridge’s most recent self-portrait appears in the introduction to his 2011 artist’s book Le
Luxe, published by MACK. In Untitled (Point Break) (2010), his face has been clumsily
Photoshopped beneath Patrick Swayze’s flowing blond hair, beside Keanu Reeves, in a poster
for the 1991 movie Point Break. The poster appears in a composite of several images scanned
at once: a junk-mail advertisement for Charley’s SolarGro ‘Cape Cod’ greenhouses; a black
and white snapshot of a surfer on the beach; and the traces of a swimsuit calendar. This single
page seems to introduce Ethridge’s book – and his wider practice – as one in which all kinds
of imagery can exist on one plane: personal and generic, appropriated and unique, high and
low, digital and analogue. As restless as this subject matter is, at the centre is Ethridge: the
artist who takes the pictures, and his other half, the more ‘idiosyncratic’ editor, who alters,
appropriates and arranges them.
Moon, 2003, c-type print, 84!!104 cm
Unexpectedly, the body of the book that follows this frenetic introduction largely comprises
images made during a commission for Goldman Sachs, for which Ethridge photographed the
construction of the financial firm’s new Lower Manhattan headquarters, from the
groundbreaking in 2005 to the installation of the last glass panes in 2010, encompassing the
crash of 2008 and the financial firm’s investigation by the federal government – when the
mood, as Ethridge saw it, ‘shifted palpably’. His documents of the construction range from
close-ups of a gravel pit filled with viscous brown fluid to orange buckets overflowing with
unused cement to distant views of the building’s ghost-like shell on the skyline, taken from a
high-rise in Jersey City. Some of these images have the feeling of out-takes or discards, shown
two or three to a page. Accordingly, they have miscellaneous titles likeConcrete Pour 3 (2007)
or Lobby 14 (2009). Ethridge’s take on Hillary Clinton’s presence at the groundbreaking
ceremony shows her in close conversation with Henry Paulson in Groundbreaking 9 (Hank
and Hillary) (2005), rather than posing for the conventional press photo ops – as if to drive
home the point that these images are not meant to constitute a comprehensive, or even fully
competent, archive.
As soon as the sequence of images in the book begins to cohere into something like a
chronological narrative, Ethridge interrupts the flow with a more enigmatic inclusion, taken
from his parallel inventories of still lifes or photographs, more likely to be known by those
familiar with his artistic practice. These full-page images are at once more deliberate and
more intimate: a sliced apple covered in wasps (Apple Bees, 2009); an empty Mason
Jar (2009) with a torn label for maple syrup; an amateur model wrapping bubble gum around
her finger (Louise, Bubble Gum x3, 2011). The photographs are like punctuation marks that
slow or halt the continuity of the Goldman Sachs building’s progressive construction. In each
one, Ethridge never leaves the potential for beauty far from the frame. A photograph of an
ashtray or a folding chair is lent the classically beautiful composition of an Irving Penn still
life, while retaining the rough-hewn qualities of the everyday.
The effect of bringing disparate genres and assignments together in the same publication is to
throw the simultaneous ‘image inventories’, created over the same time span, into relief. Not
only do we read each one anew, but a third meaning arises in between the two. The result
could be dissonant or disorientating, but Ethridge assembles them as a sort of choreographed
spatial collage unfolding over time, what he describes as a ‘fugue’. He isn’t just taking the
images on these various assignments; he’s also arranging and rearranging them into a
montage that expands the meaning of one in isolation. And it’s in the space between and
among them, where thoughts and meanings can rise up.
Last summer, Ethridge presented a selection of images from Le Luxe at Andrew Kreps in New
York. The show included, among others, close-ups of the footprints of workman’s boots on the
dirt-covered fourth floor of the Goldman Sachs building – what would become the financial
firm’s trading floor; an eerie still life of an I Love NY Bag (2011) caught in mid-air against a
red painted wall; and workmen hoisting massive panes of glass into place (Curtain Wall 11,
2007). In the latter, the construction crew performs something approximate to the reverse
process of what took place at Ground Zero, where steel frames from the World Trade Center
(only a block away from this new building) were hauled from the wreckage. Among and
between this suite of images, something like a portrait of post-9/11 New York shifted into
focus. But Ethridge would never make the theme so explicit. Whenever it started to gel into a
formal relationship, a more idiosyncratic image, like the enlarged lo-res jpeg of a shop-bought
ChristmasBow (2011), frustrated any attempt at a final analysis. Ethridge says he inserted the
bow ‘in a nonchalant way, that wasn’t intended’.4 But it’s not random: the title of his second
show at Andrew Kreps in 2002 was also ‘The Bow’, named for an image of a cheesy satin
ribbon he found in his mother’s basement. A bow, he says, ‘completes the package’.5 There
are no neat bows on Ethridge’s work, however – any suggestion of unity or completion can
just as easily be unravelled.
Louise, 2011, c-type print, 1.7!!!1.3 m
It’s not a coincidence that so many of the things Ethridge’s still lifes depict – like the bow –
are, in fact, also commercial products, some more obviously so than others. A watermelon on
a countertop in Canada (Watermelon) (2004) bears a sticker reading ‘Seedless What-AMelon’; a still-life composition of a shoe and a glove on a gingham tablecloth is Vans and
Burton Glove (2008). These images suggest that the category of product photography might
be much broader or more flexible than the art world is willing to credit it for. Today, much of
Ethridge’s audience is accustomed to these diluted categories – ‘advertorials’ in magazines,
‘sponsored content’ on websites, luxury goods given shout-outs in hip-hop records. An image
of an Hermès soap case in an exhibition doesn’t mean we’re being sold something, or that the
artist has sold out. It might mean that Ethridge’s work speaks to a generation less obviously
concerned by – or critical of – the consequences. Of course, this kind of mixture could easily
become an inconsistent or dubious affair in which the integrity of an art work is compromised
by the demands of a commercial client. But Ethridge seems to have an internal barometer –
call it a strong sense of authorship – that makes his simultaneous jobs mutually
complementary rather than mutually destructive. Much of this is attributable to his skill as an
editor who can effectively assemble the outcomes of his assignments into a whole greater than
the sum of its parts. But it might also be due to his attitude. He is bracingly forthright and
transparent about any perceived conflict between his commercial work and his art work, and
has a casual way of telling an amusing or revealing personal anecdote that can make you
forget you were questioning it. He is able to operate in these seemingly conflicting worlds, to
wear these many hats, because as an artist he is not conflicted. Though his process may be
deliberate, even strategic, it is not ironic or disingenuous.
What Ethridge terms the ‘Outro’ to Le Luxe is a confounding mash-up of pictures of waves,
harvested from the ‘pic ’n’ clip’ folder on his computer: pixellated images of surfers; a trashy
online ad featuring a bikini-clad model on the beach; the sun setting over the ocean; the
winner of a surfing competition accepting his prize. Surfing has remained one of the most
consistent themes throughout his work. Two exhibitions and books have been dedicated to the
urban shoreline where he surfs: ‘Rockaway, NY’ (2007) and ‘Rockaway Redux’ (2008). From
Rockaway, he has photographed the ocean at all times of day – with and without surfers –
from the boardwalk or, in the case ofAloha Jake (2008), from the jetty at dawn. The sequence
of webcam screen-grabs of the Rockaway shoreline is from a website he regularly checks and,
in that sense, as pixellated and disposable as it seems, it constitutes a sort of visual diary. No
matter how generic the image or its source, in Ethridge’s work there is always a possibility
that it’s a product or reflection of a life lived.
While he would never describe them as diaristic, Ethridge says his images today are more
about him ‘being there’. As he describes it: ‘Your body has to be there to make decisions.’ His
assignments are about ‘putting myself in compromising situations where I don’t know what
the result will be’6: whether that’s on the field of the Super Bowl with an assistant and a handheld flash (as he did in his untitled project for this issue of frieze), or trying to shoot the
interior of his silo-shaped studio. All situations, no matter how artificial or authentic, are
potential subjects. Ethridge knows how to capture an unguarded, tender portrait or a
spontaneous, intimate still life, but he also knows that the photographer’s role is not always to
catch that fleeting moment of beauty, but to be able to construct it for the camera.
1 Interview with Fionn Meade in Spike magazine, issue 32, Summer 2012, p.79
2 Ibid.
3 Author in conversation with the artist, 2 August 2012
4–6 Ibid.
Christy Lange
!
Meade, Fionn, Do what you know, Spike, #32, Vienna, June 2012 (+ insert)
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DIFFERENT INFLECTION OF INTIMACY OR EVEN A DIFFERENT NOTION OF
CARING ABOUT THE IMAGE THE ASSIGNMENT BECOMES PART OF THE
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF WHAT YOURE DOING
%4( 2 ) $ ' % *UST TO GIVE A BIT OF THE BORING LIFE STO
RY -Y DAD WAS AN AVID AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER ) FOUND
THIS +ODACHROME BOX WITH THIRTYSIX SLIDES IN IT AND AN
IMAGE OF ME AS A FOURYEAROLD KID HOLDING A SIGN THAT
SAYS w AT A TH AT A THi ) HAD NO MEMORY OF
THE PARTICULAR IMAGE BUT KNEW THAT ) WAS PARTICIPATING
AND THAT HE WASNT TRYING TO TAKE A CUTE PICTURE OF A KID
(E NEEDED THE FACE AND THE RIGHT LIGHT READING "UT THIS
ISNT A BAD MEMORY NOT LIKE IN THE BASEMENT MAKING
ME DO IT 7E DIDNT HAVE A BASEMENT WE LIVED IN
-IAMI
- %!$ %
- %!$ % "UT YOURE THERE IN THE IMAGE PRODUCING AN IMAGE
%4( 2 ) $ ' % !ND GROWING UP AROUND IT )N THE WAY
KIDS DO TRYING TO REBEL FROM AUTHORITY BUT ALSO TO SAT
ISFY OR CONNECT 4HEY CERTAINLY DIDNT WANT ME TO GO TO
ART SCHOOL 4HAT WASNT THE SCRIPT !FTER ART SCHOOL )
WORKED AS AN ASSISTANT TO CATALOG PHOTOGRAPHERS IN
!TLANTA BECAUSE THAT WAS THE MAIN INDUSTRY ) GOT
EXPOSED TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR OF COM
MERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY )T TAUGHT ME A LOT ABOUT WHAT )
DONT WANT TO DO BUT ALSO THAT A CATALOGUE AESTHETIC IS
SUCH A UBIQUITOUS PART OF OUR IMAGERY AND THE THINGS
7HEN AN IMAGE IS FREED OF ITS
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WE BUY 9OU BUY IT ONLINE NOW BUT BEFORE YOU COULD
FLIP THROUGH A SERVICE MERCHANDISE CATALOG AND HAVE
FANTASIES LIKE w7OW )M GOING TO BUY THIS GIRL A HEART
PENDANT NECKLACEi "UT SOMEONE HAD TO MAKE THE PIC
TURE OF THE THING
7HEN YOU CIRCULATE A VERSION OF THIS NEUTRALIZED
FLATTENEDOUT IMAGERY OF STOCK DESIRE THERE IS A PARTICULAR SENSE
OF ERA IN YOUR WORK "UT THE CATALOG AESTHETIC AND PERIODIZ
ING THAT ALSO EXISTS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO ROMANTICIZE IN
THE SAME WAY
%4( 2 ) $ ' % 7ELL AT FIRST ) WANTED TO BE A CONCEP
TUAL ARTIST BUT ) DONT CLAIM THAT ANYMORE 7HETHER ITS
AN EXPERIENCE THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED OR JUST THIS RESO
NANCE LEFT OVER FROM WHATEVER n A 3ERVICE -ERCHAN
DISE CATALOG FROM n FOR ME IT GETS MIXED IN WITH
THE HOUSE ) GREW UP IN AND HOW IT WAS COVERED IN WALL
PAPER EVEN THE CEILING !N INTERIOR DECORATOR FROM !LA
BAMA DID THE HOUSE AND LIVED THERE AND THEN WE
BOUGHT THE HOUSE FROM HER FAMILY ) GREW UP WITH THIS
INTENSE PATTERNING EVERYWHERE 3O IN SCHOOL ) LIKED
-ATISSE "UT FOR ME ) WONDER IF THATS BECAUSE OF THE
HOUSE OR -ATISSE
,IKE THAT PICTURE ON THE WALL 4HANKSGIVING )T
HAS EVERYTHING ALL THE TRAITS )TS PARTLY A PERSONAL STO
RY -Y COUSIN CAME TO 4HANKSGIVING IN 3HE WAS
LIKE FOUR OR FIVE YEARS OLDER THAN ME AND ) KIND OF HAD
A CRUSH ON HER 4HEN BY TRYING TO RECREATE IT ) GOT TO
WORK WITH (ILARY 2HODA AN AWESOME MODEL "UT IT
WAS BECAUSE IT WAS A COMMISSION FOR 6ISIONAIRE WITH
OUT IT ) WOULDNT HAVE GOTTEN (ILARY 2HODA #ECILIA
$EAN THE EDITOR OF 6ISIONAIRE ASKED ME w$O YOU HAVE
A 4HANKSGIVING PICTURE )T SEEMS LIKE YOU WOULDi !ND
) WAS LIKE w.O ) DONT "UT ) SHOULDi 3O ) IMMEDI
ATELY THOUGHT OF A STOCK REGISTER STILL LIFE BUT THAT ALSO
LED TO w7HAT ELSE IS THEREi 4HEN ) REMEMBERED THAT
STORY $O WHAT YOU KNOW 4ALK ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW
- %!$ %
) WANTED TO ASK ABOUT THE SENSE OF RECALL IN YOUR
WORK WHAT &REUD WOULD CALL THE UNCANNY AND MORE SPECIF
ICALLY ABOUT STAGING RECALL 9OUR SENSE OF SCENOGRAPHY GIVES
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ERING OF DESIRE !S YOU SAY SOMETHING THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE
A MEMORY )TS HERE THAT YOUR WORK MOVES BETWEEN A MODE OF
DOCUMENTARY INVESTIGATION OR INQUIRY AND STAGED MOMENTS OF
RECALL )TS INTERESTING HOW YOU STAGGER THESE BUILDING IN A LAG
TIME OF RECALL WHERE YOU GO BACK TO THINGS YOUVE SHOT VIA VERY
DIFFERENT PROMPTS
%4( 2 ) $ ' % 7HEN AN IMAGE IS FREED OF ITS CAPTION
IT BECOMES A DIFFERENT OBJECT AND HAS NEW TERMS OF USE
&OR ME ITS LIKE IT MIGHT HAVE FAILED IN RELATION TO ALL
THIS OTHER STUFF SO THIS COMMISSIONED IMAGE GETS DES
IGNATED w$ONT THROW IT AWAY BUT JUST FORGET ABOUT ITi
!ND THEN TWO YEARS LATER ITS LIKE w7HAT WAS THE PROB
LEM WITH IT ) REALLY LIKE THIS ONE NOWi "UT ) WOULD SAY
TODAY THAT )M JUST MUCH BUSIER BECAUSE ITS GOING GOOD
- %!$ %
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AND )VE SORT OF EMBRACED A LOT MORE ) DID A PINUP STO
RY FOR A 'ERMAN MAGAZINE WHICH WAS ESSENTIALLY AN
EXCUSE TO PHOTOGRAPH THIS STUDIO THIS BUILDING n WHICH
MAY OR MAY NOT GET TORN DOWN IN A MONTH n BUT TO DO
IT RETRO WITH PRETTY GIRLS IN BIKINIS OR WHATEVER
- %!$ % "Y USING AN EDITORIAL DISTANCE IT ALSO ALLOWS YOU
TO BRING IN THE (ENRY 0AULSON(ILLARY 2ODHAM #LINTON IMAGE
;'ROUNDBREAKING (ANK AND (ILLARY = FROM THE
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3ACHS TO DOCUMENT THE BUILDING OF NEW HEADQUARTERS RIGHT
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SUCH A BIG PART OF BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER 9OU CAN MUS
CLE THROUGH AND DO JOBS WITH SOME OF THE MOST TALENT
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OUT OF THE WAY "UT THE BEST IMAGES ARE THE ONES WHERE
SOMETHING GOES WRONG A LITTLE BIT )TS JUST A LIGHT TOUCH
THAT MAKES IT SUDDENLY MINE
- %!$%
BEAUTY
9OUR WORK OFTEN HAS THIS QUALITY OF INCIDENTAL
% 4 ( 2 ) $ ' % )TS SO MUCH A PART OF THE SHOOTING
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PLAN LETTING IT MALFUNCTION 4HE SELECTION COMES LATER
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)TS LIKE w7HAT IF WE PLAYED
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%4( 2 ) $ ' % 7IRD EIN "ILD VON SEINER "ILDUNTERSCHRIFT
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) HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THE WORD
ARCHIVE ANYWAY BECAUSE ) FEEL LIKE
)M IN THE COMMERCE DEPARTEMENT
/N EVERY COMPUTER THERES THIS STUFF ) KNEW THAT )
WANTED TO USE AN INVENTORY OF IMAGES AS A BALANCE
AGAINST THAT $ANTEESQUE POTENTIAL MOROSENESS OF THE
'OLDMAN 3ACHS THING .OT TO HIDE THE 'OLDMAN 3ACHS
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wWAVE AFTER WAVEi KIND OF THING
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THING ELSE AND ANOTHER THING AND THEN LEAVE IT 4HATS
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"UT IN RESPONSE TO 4UMBLR AND THE SORTABLE IMAGE
ARCHIVE EFFECT OF THE )NTERNET AND OUR DIGITAL EXPERIENCE WITH
IMAGES THE WAY TO INTERRUPT THE RECEPTION OF IMAGES AND CRE
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ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF IMMATERIAL LABOR BUT MORE SIMPLY HOW ITS
NO LONGER ABOUT INTERRUPTING A CULTURAL NARRATIVE THAT IS COHER
ENT 9OURE NOT PARODYING THE MELODRAMA OF A -ARLBORO AD
CAMPAIGN OR PLAYING OFF OF SOAP OPERA OR PAPARAZZI POSTURING
AS WITH 2ICHARD 0RINCE AND #INDY 3HERMAN
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)TS NOT RANDOM IT HAS SENSIBILITY IT HAS POLITICS
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WELL SOON FIND OUT THAT THERES ALWAYS SOMEONE AND
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- %!$ %
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Wilson, Michael, Roe Ethridge: Le Luxe, Time Out, New York, May 31
Review: Roe Ethridge, “Le Luxe”
The artist’s photos only seem to tell a story.
LeLe
Photograph: Courtesy Andrew Kreps Gallery
Roe Ethridge’s photographs at once deny and utterly depend on the possibility of narrative. Self-consciously
diverse in terms of origin and theme, they acquire meaning only when considered en masse, though their order is
never quite linear or even logical. Ethridge shares with many of his contemporaries an absolute ease with the
process of shifting between original and appropriated images, using the camera as both instrument and sampler.
As “Le Luxe” demonstrates, this constitutes both a freedom and a challenge: If you can do anything, what do you
do? In the case of this particular show, which contains new work alongside older shots, the answer lies in
examining a range of ideas around the good life alluded to in its title, as well as in a more random exploration of
life in the city.
A few photos were taken as part of a commission to document the construction of Goldman Sachs’ new
headquarters, but they don’t stand out from an outwardly heterogeneous pack. Equally if not more imposing are
the American Beauty–evoking image of a plastic bag drifting past a red-painted wall, a weirdly doctored take on
the promo poster for turn-of-the-’90s flick Point Break and a pixelated close-up of a gift-wrap bow. Added to this
mix is a sculptural component in the form of two empty shelving units, one in pine, the other shiny stainless steel.
Seemingly awaiting “content,” these mute objects take on an almost heraldic role in this context, signifying the
artist’s role as collector, collator and archivist.
Rosenberg, Karen, Roe Ethridge: Le Luxe, The New York Times, NYC, June 16, 2011.
ROE ETHRIDGE: ‘Le Luxe’
525 West 22nd Street, Chelsea
Through July 2
Visitors to Roe Ethridge’s latest show, his fifth solo at Kreps, must maneuver
around a pine shelving unit. It’s just one of several barriers breached in this wry
exhibition.
Here, as is his wont, Mr. Ethridge mixes commissioned and more personal work
with a smart editorial sensibility. The commercial, in this case, is fairly distinct: a
six-year assignment from the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which hired him
to document the construction of its new headquarters downtown. One of the
pleasures of this show is seeing Mr. Ethridge apply his subtle, scattershot
approach to a powerful corporation with a tightly controlled image.
He begins with the 2005 groundbreaking, zooming in on Senator Hillary Clinton
and Henry Paulson, then the Goldman chairman, so that a public ceremony
becomes a tense tête à tête. Later, in “Sand Pit 3,” he captures the swirling,
primordial ooze of the foundation. And in an exterior shot from 2009, he catches
the edge of a banner so that the word “Money” intrudes on the rising building
frame. (That frame, by the way, is echoed in the shelving unit and in a shorter,
stainless-steel bookcase.) More images from the site can be found in an
accompanying book, also titled “Le Luxe,” which may be an easier entry point for
viewers who are new to Mr. Ethridge’s work.
Conventional photodocumentary narrative seems entirely absent from the second
half of the show, where a rephotographed poster from the movie “Point Break”
(with Mr. Ethridge in Patrick Swayze’s role) hangs opposite dusky shots of the
Tokyo skyline. There’s a pixellated image of a giant red bow, too, though Mr.
Ethridge has made clear that he is not one to tie things up in a pretty package.
!
!
!
A version of this review appeared in print on June 17, 2011, on page C27 of the New York edition with the
headline: Roe Ethridge: ‘Le Luxe’.
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Lokke, Maria, Roe Ethridge: “Le Luxe”, The New Yorker, NYC, June 28, 2011.
ROE ETHRIDGE’S “LE LUXE”
From 2005 to 2010, the photographer Roe Ethridge was commissioned to photograph the construction
of the Goldman Sachs building in lower Manhattan. Documents from this project serve as the backbone
of his most recent book, “Le Luxe,” which pieces together an eclectic and often mysterious portrait of
luxury culture. In the book, photographs from various stages of the building’s development alternate
with
seemingly random glimpses of the odd corners and loose ends of American leisure and luxury class:
newspaper clippings on exotic pets running loose in Florida, screen grabs from a live feed of the
Rockaway Beach surf line, a photo of a floating “I <3 NY” plastic bag. His wry sense of humor comes
through in a few peculiar self-portraits, my favorite of which features his face superimposed over
Patrick Swayze’s in a “Point Break” movie poster. Eventually the miscellany settles into an offbeat,
abstract commentary on the preoccupation with material wealth and appearances.
The book is published by Mack Books, and coincides with the current show at Andrew Kreps Gallery,
up through July 2nd. Tomorrow, June 29th, Ethridge will be signing copies of “Le Luxe” at Dashwood
Books. Here’s a peek inside.
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Setareh, Candice, Roe Ethridge: Le Luxe II BHGG, Hellion magazine, Los Angeles, June 24, 2011.
(© Roe Ethridge. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by the Douglas M. Parker Studio)
Roe Ethridge: Le Luxe II BHGG
By Candice Setareh
June 24th 2011
The Gagosian Gallery’s are nothing short of chic, modern, and highly admired. With eleven
gallery locations around the world; in cities such as New York, London, Paris and Rome- its high
acclaim is of no surprise and without many objections. It’s the only art gallery of it’s kind to
gracefully carry an influential appeal that is sought after and often imitated. So, it’s not a surprise
that many of the exhibitions have gathered more guests then most major modern art museums.
Thus, the reason for the many comparisons to a phenomenon. With the support and admiration
from art enthusiasts and the general public alike, - artists consider having their pieces displayed at
any of the Gagosian galleries -something similar to a euphoric experience. (I’m sure Picasso and
Willem would have agreed) Thus, the opportunity to view pieces from the likes of ;Pablo Picasso,
Willem De Kooning, Damien Hirst, and Joel Morrison are priceless and should not be
overlooked.
The newest artist who has joined this exclusive and fortunate group is- Roe Ethridge. The
Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills is presenting an exhibition of his photos from June 9, 2011
through July 22, 2011. His unique interpretation of imagery in combination with his seamless
approach to manipulating and duplicating photographs, makes his pieces, at their best- truly
authentic to himself. The pieces from Le Luxe don’t stray far from Ethridge’s spontaneous yet
staged approach to capturing imagery from different genres. For example, he combines
commercial images already in circulation in other contexts with conceptual pieces such as,
vintage movie posters, and fashion models. He is clearly talented at seamlessly imposing his view
on the juxtaposition of objects to his audience. For example; “in this exhibition, he juxtaposes
polished photographs of posed models, such as Marloes Horst (2010) and Louise (2011), with
gritty still life’s of ashtrays (Butts 1, Butts 2, and Butts 3, 2010) and the grainy pages of a
newspaper (Plane Crash at Sea, 2004-2011).” (Gagosian Gallery) Lastly, it seems as though he is
driven by the concept of presenting an allusion that is often too difficult to ascertain. He edits
the pieces with a controlled complexity that no one but himself will ever probably understand,
yet this dose of mystery is exactly what is drawing people in by the masses. Le Luxe will continue
to show at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills through July 22, 2009. Visit their website at
gagosian.com for more information
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Herbert, Martin, Roe Ethridge: 4th Floor, Art Review, #47, London, Jan/Feb 2011.
Prize fighters, Time Out London, April 13, 2011
Prize fighters
The final four in the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011, rated
and reviewed
!
As the Photographers’ Gallery gets a facelift, we go underground to see the Deutsche
Börse Photography Prize in a new venue and to rate the finalists’ chances in this £30k
shutter showdown
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Roe Ethridge
For a fluorescent lesson in the dissonances of capitalism, see Ethridge. The American artist
wilfully ignores the barrier between commercial photography and art, with the pleasing result
that you’re never quite sure if he’s trying to sell you something. That bland beauty at
Thanksgiving dinner, sandwiched between a weirdly shiny turkey and a Japanese wall
hanging: what is she offering, exactly? And why does she look so wrong? Actually, she’s a
model, and the food has been styled. But that helps only in the way that buying a lipstick
helps a woman feel beautiful: it’s a temporary solution, inadequate to the scale of the
problem. There’s another image of her, not included here, in a daring emerald dress. The
whole exercise was originally a shoot for fancy magazine Visionaire. That doesn’t help, either.
The hanging speaks of one venerable culture, the dinner of another. The retouched babe in
between doesn’t speak – fantasies don’t – but her silence is infinitely troubling.
Ethridge comprehends greed, of all kinds. His still life of rotting fruit is so luscious it switches
off atavistic alarms: you want to stroke the mouldy strawberries, lick the superannuated
nectarine. His flawless images laugh at our obsession with perfection, and this flawed
exhibition, in its unforgivingly cavernous temporary home, echoes with that amusement.
Verdict Ethridge for President.
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Time Out says
In 2005, Goldman Sachs commissioned Roe Ethridge to photograph its new headquarters near Ground
Zero, which opened in 2009. He finished last month, so it seems safe to assume the three images here
are a very small proportion of his overall haul. But that's appropriate, since Ethridge's images are often
more about what he isn't photographing than what he is.
So, these large-format shots of the pre-operational trade floor are all floor - dusty and footprint-pocked
- and no trade. There's no reference to 9/11 or the financial crisis or to the horrific on-site accident in
2007 when a nylon sling broke and dumped seven tonnes of metal, seriously injuring an architect.
Except, maybe there is. Dust is, after all, a mightily flexible substance: look long enough at these
images and you'll start to see the white dust of the Twin Towers, the dust that signifies construction
(and destruction) and the metaphorical dust that our financial institutions' reputations have become.
There are oddly assorted other images here (including some unpleasant glossy advertising pictures of a
perky-nippled pubescent model in the shower) and a set of shelves. There are geometrically beautiful
pictures of some house Ethridge liked somewhere. But it's the '4th Floor' series that stays with you - an
almost textured loveliness, the prints without feet, the tyre treads with no wheels. Ethridge should have
called the exhibition Ozymandias, after Shelley's overweening monarch; certainly, given the current
state of the Western world, it is easy to look on these works and despair.
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Emma Reeves: Roe Ethridge. The Journal, #23, NYC, August 2008.
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Issue 97 March 2006
Roe Ethridge
Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, USA
Photography is all about arbitrary borders, about the illusion of self-containment and completeness. We
want to believe that we’ve got the whole picture. In his large-format photographs of often exorbitantly
bland subjects, Roe Ethridge undermines that very certitude. A pine tree, a watermelon, suburban
signage, a few portraits – the work appears to be little more than the erratic product of an unsettled,
expansive attention. Yet taken together in his various series (this show featured selections from two) or
looked at generally, Ethridge’s groupings allow his images to bounce off each other, their cumulative
effect suggestive rather than illustrative of his fundamental inquiry into our ready assumption that
photography will tell us something true.
‘County Line Plus Town and Country’ was a selection from two recent series, the C-type prints unified
by their exploration of various borders and boundaries, imaginary and real. In Hedge, Miami (2004) the
surface is dominated by the rust and dried jalapeno-coloured leaves of a hedge, its function revealed in
the lower left corner, where a tiny bit of brick pavement peeks out. That small revelation converts what
is almost an abstract colour and shape study into a baneful, eerie creature. A similarly apparently
benign but actually quite sinister image is Canada (near Banff) (2005), a snowy, wooded pastoral
traversed by a stream. The natural border is completely overpowered by the bristling remains of a
forest devastated by logging. Dense clusters contrast with more sparsely flecked areas, and from a few
feet away the photograph has the erratic profile of a denial-filled polygraph session.
Other kinds of separations are indicated by images of commercial mini-mall signs. Borrowing from the
former Main Street idea of wooden shingles, the individual strip-mall residents list themselves on one
big roadside billboard. The odd juxtapositions – a nail salon, an off-track betting joint, a kosher diner, a
pizza parlour, a launderette and video game shop – are offered up for view with editorializing or
judgement in Cedarhurst Mall Sign (2004). They are facts of suburban American life, obviously
peculiar when extracted from their usual surroundings. Ethridge shoots the signs at an angle,
emphasizing letter shapes and colour choices, the eccentric line-ups supplying their own commentary;
liquor stores and weight-loss centres dominate. The particular economic moment of such signage
stands in contrast to Town and Country, Liberty, New York (2005), which shows a dilapidated
bungalow-style store in a bedraggled corner of upstate New York, with the words ‘Town and Country’,
aspiring to some upscale respectability, scripted across its rust-coloured façade. A young black kid sits
on the bench outside, and the image is bisected by a telephone pole bristling with American flags.
Alongside the exuberant strip-mall signs, the once aspirational, now passé script is like a young man
grown old.
Clearly referencing Thomas Ruff, the Bechers and especially Chris Williams, Ethridge also shows
unexpected painterly influences, particularly in his portraits. Holly at Marlow and Sons (2005) is like a
merging of a Madonna by Sandro Botticelli (in the tilt of the head, a gesture at once contemplative and
judging) and Jean-Luc Godard (the young woman an echo of Anna Karina, in her impenetrable,
futuristic black and white turtleneck) – in itself no mean feat. The blue-filtered Mary Beth Holcomb
(2005), with her downcast eyes and almost surreally truncated arm, could be a modern-day cousin to
Jan Vermeer’s women. Most unsettling and effective is the seemingly drab Rick Holcomb (2005). The
microscopically close image – you can actually see his contact lenses – shows a man with a squarish,
stubbled face, a sideward glance and open mouth approaching a smirk, as though he’s hatching some
plan. With the face slightly shadowed against a completely neutral grey background, Ethridge achieves
something close to a Caravaggian sense of emotional betrayal in what is essentially a head shot.
Paul Outerbridge is the steady backbeat to Ethridge’s work. Like Outerbridge, Ethridge incorporates
the ridiculous and the sublime, ignoring the artificial conceits that divide photography into fine art and
commercial work, embracing whatever will further his investigation into the singularity of the
commonplace. Ethridge assumes a certain sophistication of his viewer, born of familiarity with the
conventions of editorial photography. By showing tableaux of determined ordinariness, Ethridge
manages to convey the much larger context from which these are suggestive rather than definitive
extracts. The approach is playful, with a humour that mercifully softens the bleakness: what could be
merely reportage becomes.
Megan Ratner
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