David LaChapelle “From Darkness to Light”

David LaChapelle "From Darkness to Light"

David LaChapelle “From Darkness to Light”

 The three main components presented in “From Darkness To Light” stand alone, yet inform each other to create a unified installation, utilizing photography in three ways: collage, stickers and paper chain. The pieces are inspired by the simplicity of childhood endeavors taught in early art lessons, re-imagined through the lens of adulthood. This will engage the viewer in that collective, shared experience, by taking these elementary endeavors and elevating them through figurative imagery to transcend the medium. With an innocence of material and application, the ideas conceptualized visually evoke metaphysical questions that appear at the onset of adulthood and continue through out a life examined. Each of the four photography works are site specific but archival and could be moved, rearranged or re-hung elsewhere in the future.

In “Adam” & “Eve” (Swimming Under A Microscope: Plague Of An Ancient City),” LaChapelle uses translucent stickers depicting human figures (male and female in distinct installations) pressed to the glass windows of the Lever House, creating a complete circle of figures exclaiming across the face of the glass. Individually, the figures appear as they are swimming youth, joyful and carefree. From a distance, the forms merge into a collective. The work becomes an allegory of life itself, cell-like as life seen through a microscope. In “Raft Of Illusion, Raging Toward Truth,” LaChappelle constructed this collage from simple materials common in traditional collage art projects; paper, watercolor, and pencil and printed materials. Two components of his work take it beyond the rudimentary craft. He addresses scale by creating a collage of epic size; creating a dramatic scene in which the viewer will feel as if he or she is a participant. “Chain Of Life” is made out of photographs of the human form, front and back, thus transforming the playful grade school craft into a literal chain of connected bodies. Humanity is linked through the aching need of one being to affect or connect to the next. The linked photographs, the full human figures clinging to one another, are thus transformed into an endless chain of linear dependence. These chains will run diagonally through the lobby of the Lever House, weaving and curving, dipping and rising, leading the viewer the direction of the exterior installation, and ultimately, transforming the decorative roots of the paper chain into something deeper and more resonant.

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