32 Piles 2005

Curator: Let's discuss David Burdeny’s 2005 photograph, "32 Piles." The image presents a minimalist scene: monochrome, featuring rows of what appear to be wooden piles emerging from water. Editor: My first impression is stark serenity. That silvery water and muted sky...it’s almost meditative. Like looking into a very calm soul. Curator: Considering Burdeny's photographic practice, this work sits interestingly at the intersection of landscape and minimalism. The piles, repeating in regimented order, become a study in line and form within the context of a seemingly natural environment. But nature is manipulated by labor. Editor: It definitely makes you think about labor and extraction, doesn't it? The work those pilings were put in for, likely lost. Makes the repetition both beautiful and slightly haunting. I keep wondering, though, is that fog or just a perfectly exposed sky? Curator: That ambiguity contributes to the work's power, I think. The deliberate obscuring of clear spatial relationships—it creates a visual tension. The piles were likely crafted through logging, shaped and planted in precise locations, this stark monochrome presentation abstracts these tangible acts, highlighting material alteration of place and creating what feels so contemplative, as you note, and so very empty. Editor: Exactly! They're standing there like silent witnesses. Perhaps sentinels guarding the threshold of memory. It really does feel suspended between dream and reality. What did they hold up? What will time do to the place these sit. You feel how history changes, decays. I keep feeling a poem bubbling up inside when I see it! Curator: Right—it reveals a history of social and environmental interaction, of construction and potential abandonment, without explicitly narrating the events. In essence, Burdeny’s strategic manipulation of photographic techniques enables him to use these modest, material forms for complex narrative creation and critique. Editor: Beautifully put. And you've given me even more to dream on. I may have to write something about this... it's got my artist brain whirring! Curator: It’s precisely this layered interaction that defines so much compelling artwork; objects acting as both form and repository for larger considerations around humanity’s impact.