I'm a big fan of fish. Besides being one of the few healthy foods that I enjoy, they're the only kind of pet my mom allowed me to have as a kid. I always wanted to grab the giant oscar out of our tank and give it a good hug, or at least pet it a little. The image of a fisherman cradling a slippery sea creature in Matthew and the Sleeper (2006), one of the photographs by Corey Arnold on view at Sara Tecchia Roma, embodied this desire of my younger self down to the childishly protective, yet possessive expression on the fisherman’s face. I couldn't shake the feeling of nostalgia as I walked through the gallery. Finally reaching the The White Side (2006), a close-up shot of a dead fish, I grinned as I remembered flying into a tantrum and flushing the oscar down the toilet after it had eaten all of my other fish.
“Fish-Work” is the first exhibition of Corey Arnold's work in New York. As a young college grad, he saw the opportunity for adventure, good money and a great project in commercial fishing. Thirteen years later, Arnold is still a fisherman and artist, and describes what he does as part-documentary, part-conceptual photography (to hear more from Arnold, click on the NPR interview link on the gallery website). His work has been compared to the Romantic paintings of J.M.W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich, who both depicted the beautiful, yet terrifying wildness of nature.
When I learned of this comparison, I felt a little guilty sacrificing the majesties of the sea for my own amusement, but my reactions weren't entirely off – Arnold has a sense of humor. Shitty Day (2006) shows Matthew mock-choking himself with a makeshift noose, providing a little bit of comedy that is probably key to surviving out there. I can only imagine how it feels to be on a small boat in the middle of nowhere with the same people for months, surrounded on all sides by ocean. The small format of the photos in the gallery relates this feeling of claustrophobia, but is unable to fully capture the power of the elements. Arnold snaps some good action shots of the fishermen at work, and uses precarious angles created by the ship and the waves against the sky to regain some of the lost energy. The work, however, seems to focus more on a personal journey than the forces of nature.
But whose journey is it? The press release for Arnold's show mentions a “satisfaction of our natural voyeurism.” Truly, the photos are set up cleverly to form a narrative that the viewer can follow around the gallery, like watching an episode from a reality show (has anyone ever seen Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel?). I am not a huge fan of reality shows but I enjoyed this approximation of one, and I bet you will too. Arnold's work has diverse views, from humorous portrait to Romantic seascape. I even found an unexpected decorative still life in Hyse (2005) which depicts hundreds of hanging fish, like a giant wind chime or chandelier. Anyone who can do all that under the constant danger of being flushed down nature's toilet has to have some talent.
“Fish-Work” at Sara Tecchia Roma runs until April 4th
Sara Tecchia Roma
Take the A, C, or E train to 23rd Street and/or the M23 bus to 23rd Street and 10th Avenue
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat, 10am-6pm
Gallery website: www.saratecchia.com
Artist website: www.coreyfishes.com
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