Spotlight On: Christo Brock

Unwonted Eye, Christo Brock at TAG Gallery, 24 February – 21 March 2015 

Christo Brock, Blue Ripples #3, 2015, Photo on metal, 20 × 30 in

The Unwonted Eye is photographer Christo Brock’s latest exhibition of work on view at TAG Gallery.
In his latest work, Brock continues to explore unwonted (unusual, unexpected) imagery from everyday life. His eye ranges from the languid rolling ocean in Blue Ripples #3 to the macroscopic Tortured Orange Line and the enhanced fantastical forest-scape of Christmas Trees.

Christo Brock, Christmas Trees, 2015, Photo on metal, 20 × 30 in

In all his imagery, printed exclusively on metal, Brock shows the unique vision that has characterized his work. It’s this metal surface that provides a medium to complete Brock’s abstraction of image. These photographs don’t merely sit on the metal as a photograph - they seem to live in the metal. His images shimmer and glisten, and the metal often adds a welcome element of abstraction to his work. At times, Brock plays with the metal, as if daring to evoke the molecules to speak. Dew Drops become glowing orbs, waves become undulating stripes of blue, trees become lines of color and depth.

Christo Brock, Pearl Harbor, 23 December 2011, 2011, Photo on metal, each 20 × 30 in

In his triptych Pearl Harbor, 23 December 2011 Brock pursues this approach in photos taken only minutes apart at the Hawaii National Park that memorializes the horrible attack that brought America into war. The oil floating on the surface above the sunken monument USS Arizona has an eerie visual shimmer to it. It’s like looking at a series of demon clouds conjured from a 70 year old monument eager to speak its secrets. In the piece entitled Tiny Bubbles, tiny bubbles appear arranged with a hidden logic, and the piece looks to be a close-up view of piebald crocodile skin. Brock reveals that it was shot it was condensation on a fruit bowl’s saran wrap.

Christo Brock, Tiny Bubbles, 2015, Photo on metal, each 20 × 30 in

“I don’t like to reveal to people what the image was,” Brock says with a wry smile, “because when I took the image, it was one thing. Now it’s something else.” When pressured, Brock will reveal the provenance of the original image, but he much prefers to let the viewer decide. “People ask me all the time what the image “is”. … when what they really mean is, what did I aim my camera lens at. Now, it’s something else, and I want people to feel that new thing.”

Christo Brock, Squiggly Lines, 2015, Photo on metal, 20 × 30 in

UnWonted Eye is on display at TAG Gallery from Tuesday 24th February through Saturday 21st March.

Join Christo at TAG on Saturday 7 March at 3pm, where he will part of an Artists Talk.