Art New England Magazine 

July/August 2013

 

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The Labors of Silence: Photographs by Forrest Holzapfel

Review by Meg Brazill

 

Catherine Dianich Gallery, Brattleboro, VT | catherinedianichgallery.com

Vermont Performance Lab, Guilford, VT | vermontperformancelab.com

 

Forrest Holzapfel plays with time.  Life and how it is (or was) lived is central to Holzapfel's vision, through the lens of his 8 x10 view camera. He takes on this work as if it were his trade, documenting the rural town of Marlboro, Vermont. But Holzapfel is more than a documentarian; serendipity, whimsy, and a discerning eye inform his photographs. He is an explorer of objects once so familiar that they were as good as invisible. Time and his camera transform these objects from ordinary to fascinating.  Although his black & white prints reveal exquisite detail, collectively they communicate more.  The Labors of Silence refers both to “Silence,” a character from Ain Gordon's play at the Vermont Performance Lab (Not What Happened), in which Holzapfel's photographic projections supplied a visual dimension, and to silence itself.  Labors introduces fragility to Holzapfel's work, where the mystical echoes between what's there and what's not.  These photographs catch, and reflect on, local artifacts like an old kettle or a gravestone.

 

In "Winnow", a wooden basket used for separating grain from chaff, appears in closeup. Its opening – a rectangular black hole – is the handle, and the area around it has suffered a thousand cuts. This simple tool, once a familiar part of everyday life, reappears in Holzapfels' contemporary photographs, but now the opening emits a voice to be heard in the future, which is now. In "Oven 2", the curve of an old brick oven leads us into the dark unknown.  A shadow obscures what is just around the corner. Burns discolor the ovenfloor.  Here Holzapfel's point of view alters between friendly and familiar (home and hearth) to the cold and inhospitable (the confines of a prison).  This alternating scenario is repeated often: the hourglass in "Time", flames and burning wood in "Fire 3".   His photographs recognize human use, especially the relentless parade of repetitive tasks essential to survival.  It's easy to imagine a person's hand on the Kettle and the Oven still warm.  A cavernous silence surrounds these items isolated from their original purpose.  Holzapfel leads us on this journey, from distant fields and burial grounds to the hearth. We gladly follow.