“Metonymies – Sojourn”
An Exhibit Featuring the Photography of
John Moses and Joshua Moulton
November 4 – November 28, 2021
ArtHop Reception: Thursday, November 4, from 4PM to 8PM
“Metonymies” Metonymy is the imaginative process that uses a part to represent the whole. Proximity, or contiguity, is basic to how it operates in figures of speech. But more than just a literary device in poetry, metonymy is part of everyday communication, a way of understanding and speaking about the world—for example, “hand” for helper, “Hollywood” for American movies, “Rothko” for the artist’s paintings. But what does that have to do with photography, you may be wondering. Linguists and artists have long extended the concept to the visual arts—from painting to the cinema. Roman Jakobson contrasted the metaphors of surrealist art to the metonymies of Cubism. Sergei Eisenstein theorized about the metonymies inherent in distinct categories of cinematic montage, the relations of shot to shot. Photographers constantly make judgments involving contiguity. Whether in the viewfinder or the darkroom, they reveal what is in the frame and what is beyond it. Sometimes the subject is complete and surrounded by empty space—a still life, a building, an object from nature. Just as often, the subject is only implied by the part shown, sometimes so abstracted as to be ambiguous even in its concreteness. The images of “Metonymies” play with these possibilities. They imply what is not there as much as present what is. Some are abstract, minimalist images—a light shining on a reel of film; a detail from a 6-foot bronze; a hoist drum from a Cornwall mine. Others are more recognizable parts of some whole—a building façade, a tree within a forest, components of a steam engine. And others are of images connected to concepts like flag for country. Each illustrates how metonymy is as basic to visual language as it is to verbal. Functionally, metaphors are the opposite of metonymy, based on imagined similarities rather than recognized proximity. Yet the two creative processes often operate together. A flag connects to country but also evokes ideas about honor or dishonor. The closeup of a sunflower’s center may epitomize the beauty of the flower but can also remind us of Van Gogh’s fields of yellow or a dreamlike scene from a Busby Berkeley musical. So, while I present the images in this exhibit as examples of metonymy, I invite you to imagine the metaphoric possibilities as well. |
Sojourn Hiking through the Icelandic mountains on a deary, late afternoon and coming over the rise of the hilltop, I finally get my first glimpse at the Geldingadalir volcano and my heart skips a beat. As I draw nearer to the eruption I feel heat from the lava warming my face just like I’m sitting in front of a campfire even though the source is thousands of feet away. The sound of stones grinding upon each other as the hardened uppermost layer of molten rock flows past in a river of fire fills my skull. And then comes the eruption-a magnificent, glorious and violent explosion of lava directly from the heart of the volcano high into the sky as more pours down the side. This could be Mordor. At my core I love fantasy. I love fantasy books, movies, games, and the wide-sweeping vistas that detail the epic quests and scenes that drive these stories. In essence that is what Sojourn is to me. Sojourn features photos from around the world that share that common sense of adventure and wonder. From the Martian landscapes of the Tron a Pinnacles to the abundant waterfalls of Iceland, each location weaves a story for my camera to capture. California is home to many captivating and varied landscapes and I take every opportunity to explore my native state, but nothing excites me more than the call of an exotic land. My latest sojourn to Iceland, the land of ice and fire, did not disappoint. There are waterfalls everywhere you look, erupting volcanos, glacier bays and epic canyons that transport you to a time before humans roamed the earth. In this collection I’ve gathered moments from Iceland, California and afar to bring viewers along with me on my adventures. So, come sojourn with me through these epic landscapes and maybe, if you’re feeling up to it, you can hum along to the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack like I always find myself doing when I’m out there. |