Untitled 1979

Curator: Jay DeFeo created this intriguing, untitled photograph in 1979. I am struck by the dark mood it sets and the way the hands appear ghostly. Editor: They certainly do! Almost like ectoplasm or x-ray imaging... Curator: Yes! Hands float around these glowing rods or light tubes and then juxtaposed to drafting tools – a compass, specifically. I wonder what sort of social commentary DeFeo intended by including them together. Editor: The juxtaposition immediately has me thinking about precision versus chance, or the imposition of rational geometry upon… something else. Look at the hands, the glowing tubes, they suggest a technology, or material yet unknown. There's a strong contrast. DeFeo was likely asking a larger question about tools and technologies and the ways humans shape reality through them. Curator: And the photographic process itself—the manipulation of light, the darkroom techniques… it’s all about controlling and shaping an image, creating something new. Editor: Indeed! This also places importance on *how* something is rendered in addition to *what* it is. There is a real relationship between the hand in the photo and the artist’s hand in creation of the print itself! Thinking of hands, labour, creative labour—we're pushed into understanding the conditions of art-making at the time. How the ready-made could sit alongside photography as an emerging discipline Curator: Yes, this blurs any boundaries and prompts an essential debate, about artistic vision and how new media, methods, technologies have played a role! Editor: What a compelling look at not just the artistic practice, but the very material underpinnings of creativity! Curator: Absolutely. I’m struck anew by how DeFeo forces us to see the familiar in unfamiliar ways.