Susan Mikula's Polaroid Experiments at CHC

This Friday at CHC Gallery (511 West 20th Street), part-time New Yorker and full-time photographer Susan Mikula will unveil her solo exhibition titled "sic transit," which exploits "the idiosyncrasies of a Polaroid camera." The photographer comments on her work saying, “I'm obsessed with the passing of time and the way light changes. When I've done what I set out to accomplish in a photograph, I have preserved the skipping and floating and grinding of time.”

Rachel Maddow, of MSNBC and Air America, also chimes in and invites you all out to the opening this week via her Twitter (Mikula is her longtime girlfriend). She notes: “Susan's abstract visions are familiar enough to make you worry she might have gotten into your head and stolen your memories -- she can make you feel reminded of things you've never done.”

All of Mikula's prints at the show originate from her vintage Polaroid shots; learn more here.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on December 17, 2008 5:01 PM

Comments [rss]

porcupine

Spinny office chair?

beachbum1966

OOOHHHH my lord I am an artist and never knew it...I have been making pictures like this for years....where should I sell them?

Buck Owens

Does this woman who pretends to be an artist live in Williamsburg by any chance? If she does, then that explains it.

pilotbwana

Ah, nice to see such civility and open mindedness among so called artists. Give her a chance.

stella10

People should stop being jealous- I just walked by the gallery and it looks pretty cool. They didn't write the medium but the chc gallery website says they are Digital Duraflex prints face-mounted to plexi.

smacky

She should burn her camera

RDR105

Come on! and there's an exhibition for this??

yakatori

I don't blame this woman for using her girlfriend to gain some sort of credibility since I don't think her work could do it in its own right. That being said, I think Maddow should just stick to current events.

citizenerased

Looks like a realtor that doesn't know how to use a camera, taking photos of an empty apartment to put on craigslist.

Frankybonz

Hah!

There are artists, and then there's someone trying to sell something. That's not to say the two can't be the same person in some cases. I'm an artist myself, and I know where the line is with my own work.

This person is probably looking for idiots to help her bank account become recession-proof. She has the media connections obviously, maybe deluded as well, and if not, just completely lacking integrity.

MrManhattan

I used a Polorid camera in the late 70's and early '80s, but that one took pictures in focus.

zstone

So rarely can everyone agree on something.

kapusta

...if these "idiosyncrasies of a Polaroid camera" were crap, it would fill-in the east river...

Rfive

I love art photography, but this is shit.

Rfive

As an artist, I would have to call bullshit. Sorry.

r1b2

Crap

GM

Gothamist continues to not be my source for art news. What garbage.

duckumu

i love rachel... but these are desperately uninteresting.

NannyState

I could have seen more but I was able to chew through the restraints.

SP

#9 Kyle: those are awesome.

suepart

this has been done to death. a few years ago, maybe seven or more, there was a female "photographer" whose name i cannot recall or care to remember who did these sorts of things and got some modicum of fame- gallery shows and books and whatnot. but her time is up already.

to present these now by another "artist" looks just "out of focus", or blase or not trying at all.

Kyle T

A friend of mine takes really cool polaroid photos. If you want to believe in the format again, check out her photos here:

Pigeon Fight

pickycapellit

Mmm. Muffins...

colonelcasey

I could've done this with an empty building and messing with the focus on my camera...doesn't look too special.

TheKlaus

Am I in a stable? Because all I see is horse shit

(don't get me wrong. I love when Gothamist covers the arts. But this... this 'art' is just sad, empty, deplorable posturing)

ugh

"Experiments" = FAIL

The Edge

Terrible.

Even worse than RatherBe's stuff.

ugh

Self taught artist? ugh. and being Rachel Maddows girlfriend has nothing to do with getting a show in a Chelsea gallery.

and it sucks BTW.

nyrangers

"When I've done what I set out to accomplish in a photograph, I have preserved the skipping and floating and grinding of time.”

gothamist has accomplished giving me a headache, thanks for posting these blurry pictures.