Criterion Series
On one level, the works within Calvin Collins' Criterion series are quite simply, a homage to his love of films. In this case and specifically, the films contained within the esteemed Criterion Collection. All of the images in Collins' Criterion series are stills that have been appropriated from a particular Criterion Collection film that the artist has carefully viewed, digital camera in hand, paused at select scenes, select moments, and then captured by photography. The scene is chosen at random because of its visual as well as visceral resonance and/or dialogue or a combination thereof. The title of each piece is the name of the film the imagery was taken from.
By capturing key moments of certain films and displacing the images from the original film context into an isolated scene, Collins seeks to recode them. On a superficial level there is a certain whimsical aspect to some of the works. Collins enjoys (and employs) the use of certain materials that are traditionally regarded as pedestrian, unsophisticated, industrial, lowbrow and/or adolescent, such as glitter, spray enamel and resin. He appreciates the alluring powers of the chosen materials and the immediate velocity at which they attract the eye. The use of resin is deliberate--a material chosen for its versatile, seductive, encapsulating, even hermetic qualities. When sanded, the resin takes on the appearance of, and is often mistaken for, encaustic-- its more sophisticated and very distant relative. But when left unsanded, the resin is highly reflective, like the glass of a window or monitor. Gold leaf, a more traditional material that was often used in early religious iconography, is used selectively in some works to instill and suggest a paradoxical reference that is at once decorative, reverent and kitschy, especially when paired with spray paint. In this sense, Collins manipulation of the materials becomes somewhat distracting from some of the overwrought, darker psychology that informs select chosen scenes.
"...I have always been particularly enamored and intrigued by the bands of light that mysteriously appear in a photo taken of a lit television screen, reminiscent of the static-laden images often seen on surveillance monitors. These 'video lines', as I term them, add to the strange visual frequency of the works, suffusing the imagery with a familiar and very contemporary resonance; a decidedly low tech approach and an emulation of a high tech aesthetic."