passage 3-0-5
"They formerly told of an oracle, 'Know Thyself which though filled with warning, signals this aspiration, namely that we should examine all that is admirable within ourselves and that constitutes the source of many of our actions."1 Justin Kramer would reflect upon these words with a maturity known only to those who have experienced a severe medical condition. Passage 3-0-5, a solo exhibition by Kramer at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, forged a comprehensive space for itself through strength of content and media. The works reconstruct a childhood and adulthood spent confronting the body in bits and pieces. The exhibition resonates with the journey of negotiating the artist's own fragmented image.
Meticulous fragile hand-drawn lines, arcs, arrows and graphs are scratched onto the acetate boxes attached to the wall. The images are projected via the warm gallery light onto the clean, white wall behind. The work is entitled Shadow of a Doubt and the image reasserts itself in its projected shadow. The perfectly symmetrical acetate forms, the etched lines, arrows, arcs and graphs and their corresponding projected shadows demand observation. The viewer is reduced to an insignificant observer in the presence of the medical signifier, the patient witnessing the diagnosis. These crisp, fragile, though precise, images speak the language of medical authority. Four ceramic, cranium-like domes are presented at waist height as if for inspection. It is the waist height placement of the work Grey Matter that forces the viewer to negotiate the artwork as if it is a supermarket product. In Grey Matter: Obiter Dictum, seemingly nonsensical numbers and words have been pierced into the clay cranium. The words could be medical notes, abbreviations, measurements and symbols, indecipherable to patient