The Dama Art Gallery is pleased to present Good Morning Dave, a solo exhibition of photographs by California-based artist Curtis Taylor. An expansion of Taylor’s popular 3D work, Good Morning Dave moves beyond the physical limitations of his sculptural work and emphasizes the spatial dynamics of positive and negative imagery.
The serendipitous fruition of this exhibition is the contemporary art fallout of an experimental pinhole camera project, wooden monolith and calamitous road trip to the midwest during a year in pandemia. Good Morning Dave is a paradoxical, but perfectly timed execution of a project gone both wrong and right.
The title Good Morning Dave seemed fitting as the literal and allegorical parallels between Kubriks’ Space Odyssey 2001 and the unconventional creative journey Taylor embarked on in 2020 were realized. In 2001, HAL’s A.I. advanced until it circumvented it’s inventors. The unintentional evolution and final presentation of this exhibition proposed similar discord for Curtis Taylor as he considered the possibility that the art no longer belonged to the artist.
The final collection of prints presented for Good Morning Dave is a mesmerizing visual frontier of Taylor’s enigmatic perspective on spontaneity, adaptation and perseverance.
Written by Jessica Torres, Owner Dama Art Gallery.
part 1
its calling
mashed potato
mountains
flash burn floaters
momentarily visible
waltzing in the aether
1 2 3
listening to voices
4 5 6
muscle memory
purpose unknown
the process of becoming
part 2
stratum
a horizon contained
interpreted
bisected and reconnected
perfectly familiar
conspicuously out of place
alone
calling to nothing
in one to
three-point perspective
a tenuous balance
dubious locations
part 3
blue danube
a gale-force trebuchet
a crescendo
of dissonant chords
beginning the process
disassembling the becoming
strangely
ambivalent rumination
conversations
oversaturated impressions
s-curve crushed blacks
serendipitously obfuscated
analog coding
rinse
lather
if live then repeat
existential implications
finding meaning in presence
comfort in minutiae
conversations
connections
moments
hear to
their
slouched, earbud posture,
and
backpack companions.
tibetan vibrations.
Blue screens, white noise.
pavlovian conditioning.
vacant.
swipe.
Everyday is Sunday, now is a pinhole camera project recording shelter-in-place social environments. The camera’s wide-angle “lens” and long exposures obfuscate moving objects and translate the sedentary as a once-and-future dystopia. The project was completed with homemade pinhole cameras fabricated from PVC pipe with aluminum can pinhole lenses exposed to direct-to positive paper.
No
commute
2-week stubble
jammies
slippers
zoom
garage cubicle
the drapes do not match the carpet
the roots
do.
Gloves
masques
and hand sanitizer
coughing
sneezing
sideways glances
do they know each other?
Leashed
scrunched
hunched backs
mourning constitutionals
excuses to leave the house
garbage
recycling
I need to check the mail.
Look
both ways
muscle memory
and look again
empty
streets
full of cars.
Push
notifications
FEDEX
U
P
S
pavlovian responses
real
first
world connections
six to
eight
weeks to arrive.
Hello
neighbor
social distance
social distortion
social media
the new
american past time
howling with strangers
a
shaved
head
whisking coffee
flashing your
other.
Faded
tape lines
satirical
amusement park ques
curbside pickup
only.
N95
obfuscated smiles
hot exhale
steamy glasses
polyethylene barriers
did I just pull my mask down to hear you better?
Every
day is Sunday now
routines forgotten
vacation schedules
two
day
sum
day
the next.
Deep learning frameworks.
Rampant consumerism,
and eat it, too.
Needn't search,
Cookies, history, photo library
Know me best.
Poetic bus stops,
Dogs and cats ...
atrophic eating habits
enjoyed with one click.
Note: I had been exploring the written word quietly for a few months when a friend introduced me to the movie Patterson outside of all things computer (yes, we were having an old-timey face-to-face conversation). I had forgotten about the movie until it "magically" appeared in the suggested column of my Amazon list. I couldn't just let her know it was there I had to write this poem. It just seemed fitting.
Five layered videos capture the repetition of my daily commute—same seat, same car, same time. A strip of tape across the lens clouds the view with a faint, persistent haze. As the sequences overlap, routine turns into rhythm, blurring one day into the next. Motion, sound, and light merge into cycles that hover between comfort and monotony. Through distortion and repetition, the work examines how daily rituals embody both security and quiet confinement.
Curtis Taylor Art
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