COLLECTION NAME:
University Art Galleries (UMassD)
Record
exhibition_title:
Jacob's House
exhibition_dates:
September 27 - October 23, 1993
exhibition_year:
1993
exhibition_location:
University Art Gallery (UMass Dartmouth Galleries)
exhibition_note:
In April of 1987, Stephen DiRado made a photograph of rusting garden tools in Jacob Knight's yard. He considered the photograph a dismal failure but at the same time exciting. He was looking for a project, and Jacob's vast collection throughout his house, barn and yard with its abundant material, had potential prospects for Stephen to explore. He decided early on, to use an 8x10" Deardorff view camera; a cumbersome and deliberate format that yields great definition. By midsummer, after months of false starts, Stephen found a style that animated -- brought back to life selections from Jacob's collection. Stephen remembers, "I felt like I was living and breathing inside a time capsule. Everything familiar in my life was somewhere on Jake's property, ready for the picking." By late summer, Stephen set up a primitive studio in Jacob's barn. There he set up still lifes, taking days to construct. For lighting, he used one light bulb hanging overhead, aided with mirrors and tinfoil propped about just outside of the camera's view. The lighting was critical in order to create depth within each installation. Jacob was amused by Stephen's labor intense still lifes. Stephen came to work one day to find a wooden sign with the words, "DiRado's Dilemma" hanging above the barn door. During Stephen's one year tenure at Jacob's, he frequently took time off from constructing photographs to make documents of Jacob, his yard and house. This continued periodically years to follow. From 1991 through 1993 Jacob made frequent visits to Martha's Vineyard staying with Stephen. On the island, they both worked; Jacob painted and Stephen photographed. Jacob's House pays homage to Jacob Knight. It is not about specifics but more an overall portrait that expresses Jacob's complex life. It is also a book about Jacob's effect on Stephen and what he created out of Jacob's harvest.
exhibition_genre:
photographs
resourceID:
13009_022
resource_type:
ephemera - invitation
copyright notice:
COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION: Under the direction of the Visual Resource Center digital collections are made available to the UMass Dartmouth campus community for the sole purpose of classroom instruction and study in accordance U.S. Copyright Laws . All other uses are prohibited and are subject to copyright infringements.
credit line:
UMass Dartmouth Art Galleries
artist name:
Stephen Dirado
artist_nationality:
American
artist_vital dates:
1957 -
artist_biographical note:
Stephen DiRado (born 1957) is an American photographer. His work is mostly black-and-white, and he makes frequent use of large-format cameras. He is most noted for his portraiture, night-astronomical photography, and semi-composed group photography, and for the extensive length of his projects.[1][2] He has been the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,[3] the Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artist Foundation.[4] He has taken part in solo and group exhibitions at venues including the DeCordova and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His work is held in both public and private collections and has appeared in print in The New York Times Magazine and Esopus. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in photography within the Visual and Performing Arts at Clark University.
date_of_ record:
10/15/13
name_cataloger:
jtrinh