STONE / West-33-press-8x6x300

West-33-press-8x6x300

 

Warren Padula's vision of the rocks in the landscape of Montauk Beach is a post-modern take on the modern vision of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Through the viewfinder of his camera Padula sees grids and blinking dots that he keeps in his final image in order to dissipate the illusion of the transparency of the medium of photography. Even before the digital era the notion that the photographic image was simply a window to the world was already a suspect one. Padula reminds us not only of the human intervention in the instrument which he calls "a combination of surveying device and bombsight," but in the landscape itself. The rocks he photographs, Padula reflects, "were moved here from a mountain quarry far away, using air drills, dynamite, barges, and cranes. This entire vast landscape I'm in is artificial." It is these migrant rocks that Padula dissects and also recomposes as if they were stone Rorschach stains. As such, they are game for broad interpretations. "West #33" appears as the fossilized head of a colossal prehistoric herbivore. The work is a reminder that some inanimate stones slowly result from a prolonged take-over of animal bones. The lifespan of stones is such that it is conceivable that all animals (including humans) may one day be part of their "biography" as a result of natural or artificial calamities.