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Lucas Blalock: when capturing the wait

Stefano Pirovano

Lucas Blalock is currently having his second solo show at Reminken Crucible. In this case we will try to analyze a single work, instead of writing in general about his photography. So many times the artist has talked about it and, of course, we wouldn’t like to spoil Blalock’s effective critical outlook on himself.

Peg Leg is a unique chromogenic print dated 2012. A woman in black transparent underwear stands on a white wall. Her face and her shoulders are out of the image, and a wooden similar board is onto her left leg. Despite her outfit, she wears men’s shoes. At her sides there are a pink curtain and a metallic stool turned upside down. A socket and some electric wires are on the floor testifying the presence of someone, probably the photographer, who is shooting the set under an artificial light.

At a first glance it seems that we are in front of a mysterious scene. As a journalist, or a detective would do, you probably start by asking yourself who, where, what, when… and, of course, why. But you soon realize that if you go this way you are likely to fail. The image is the only evidence you have and this is exactly what the artist – who is present behind the camera – is saying: it’s not about reality, but how he wants it to appear to your eyes.

Organized colors, various objects, a female body, electricity and light, nudity, shades. These are the mental elements which have to be considered as primitive visual prototypes, apparently out of any specific experience, but purely existent in the mind of whoever is looking at them. It follows that the five basic questions are reduced to a single one: why am I feeling this attraction for the image? And one of the possible answers is, because it makes me waiting.

September 6, 2018