JOHN RICKSEN-Born 1981 Berkeley, CA-Lives and Works in Moraga, CA....... Quantum Series Photographs--------- John Ricksen’s photographs document the effects of the passage of time within the landscape of modern cities. He engages the viewer in the way he uniquely captures the visual connection of this moment to the next. In each image the coexistence of various focal points and the nature of their relations subversively hints at theories of parallel universes and Quantum mechanics. As the speed of modern life becomes increasingly faster and more integrated with technology the method by which Ricksen creates his work is strikingly fundamental and original. He does not use any manipulative studio techniques to create the beautiful beams of light radiating from the past to the future, they are all captured organically in the milliseconds of an open lens, as life briefly recedes from the center of now. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Ricksen – The Eternal Panels++++++++++++++++++++++++++ America is vast. Its history spans, time, culture, movement, invention, industry, technology and revolution. John Ricksen’s Eternal Panels aim to retrace the humanity of our country through the rediscovery of its nature. Each panel is magnetized with tiles that can be rearranged to create different landscapes and imagery that help to re-examine the abstract and fractured moments of our natural history. Using recycled materials from renowned photographers histories, combining reproductions of media and print and adding an eternal lifeline to each piece helps John to redefine the concept of visual art as it has never been before. Using the otherwise unrecupurable media of used photography books he examines the myriad of ways photographic imagery can be incorporated into abstract patterning, and in the process underscore the unique power of reproductive media. Ricksen seeks to reconfigure our current conditions by producing meaning and value through a transformation of actions rather than solid materials. Throughout his works he explores social processes, cultural converntions and the allocation of roles, thereby not only redefining art production but also reconsidering the fundamental values of the modern world of art. The fact that Ricksen’s works are produced in this way elicits a different kind of viewer: a visitor who is no longer a passive spectator, but one who bears a responsibility in shaping and even contributing to the actual realization of the piece. The work inquires viewers to ask what they think, but more importantly it calls into question an individuals own participatory actions when in the typical confines of a gallery/museum environment. Ricksen’s eternal panels form a new conception of a piece of art existing not only as a visual production but also as a new conception of art as a repository for autobiographical, cultural and historical information. Like many artists before him, he pursues a distinct archival impulse, amassing fragments of reality either by creating new photographs or by appropriating existing ones and repurposing them. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In addition to documenting people and events, one of photography's primary functions has been to record sites where significant often tramatic events have taken place. As viewers we are left with only traces from which we hope to reconstruct the absent occurrences in the imagery we recognize. Ricksen has turned to empty spaces in landscape and architecture, creating reflections on time’s inexorable passing, and insisting on the importance of remembrance and memorialization. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Photography has not only profoundly impacted our understanding of history; it has altered and reconfigured our sense of personal memory. From birth to death, all aspects of our lives are reconstituted as images alongside our own experience of them. This repetition, which is mirrored in the very technology of the photographic medium, effectively produces an alternate reality in which we coexist. In re-examining the strategy of image appropriation that Warhol pioneered, attending closely to the forms and origins of our nation, John has attended closely the reforms of life and their personal, political and global significance.