Below are a few words that Kathleen King wrote about my current show, 16:9, on view at Mercury 20 in Oakland, through September 3:
I bought this photograph titled 16:9 (07) from local artist Chris Komater. By (de)constructing traditional photographic images into colored squares on a 16 x 9 grid, Chris asks us to think about what we see.
In a funny way Chris is making a mysterious and even romantic image here. Part of the fun of this work is trying to decipher the image.
My brain saw the Golden Gate Bridge in this grouping of colored squares. Specifically, the view from the parking lot at Fort Point, which is the location of a famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, a Hollywood movie set in San Francisco. Aptly, that movie explores truth and fiction in what we see and believe about what we are seeing. It also reveals how feeling is transmitted through vision and can be embodied in a person or place. I have so many feelings about the passage of time, my life and love in this place, San Francisco. My whole life kind of flashes before me when I see this photo.
On top of that, the digital pixilation technique foregrounds the changes that the last decades have brought to the “cool grey city of love,” especially the exodus of artists, musicians, lovers, seekers. There is a continuous narrative that history, the land and the Bay waters hold that can be heard by those who listen. Data seems to be replacing narrative for now but the wind still sings the message if current algorithm creators attune.
So glad to have this beautiful piece in my collection. This is the last weekend to view Chris’s marvelous show 16:9.
— Kathleen King