Lucas Blalock: Low Comedy at Ramiken Crucible

Lucas Blalock’s work perfectly matches my idea of photography today.
When I’m observing it, I think of what Slavoj Žižek said: for reality to be real, sometimes we need to add artifice. Otherwise, it’s not believable. Photography rarely convinces me, for indeed it leads me to a reality too real to be true, and to perceive a deep feeling of catastrophic delirium. It hits me with something very sharp and clear, but at the same time its boundaries seem liquid.
In my view, here we can find the work’s short circuit, its core point.
Starting from high-definition images, Blalock brings photography to a state of pure vandalistic inebriation.
In Blalock’s vandalistic act, what fascinates me is the added artifice that makes reality shine brighter of a catastrophic real.
To me, Blalock’s photographs are a present-day Sturm und Drang drenched of mid-day sun.

Lucas Blalock: Low Comedy at Ramiken Crucible, New York. April 17 – May 22, 2016