Riffs on Real Time with Ground (Nightshade)

Date2018

Artist Leslie Hewitt (American, born 1977)

CultureAmerican

MediumDigital chromogenic print and gelatin silver print; unique

DimensionsImage (Silver gelatin print): 29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in. (74.9 x 60 cm)
Matted (Silver gelatin print): 36 7/8 x 30 in. (93.7 x 76.2 cm)
Framed (Silver gelatin print): 38 1/4 x 31 x 2 in. (97.2 x 78.7 x 5.1 cm)
Image (Digital chromogenic): 16 x 17 in. (40.6 x 43.2 cm)
Framed (Digital chromogenic): 16 15/16 x 17 15/16 x 2 in. (43 x 45.6 x 5.1 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, Advisory Council for Photography and Friends of the Art Gallery Fund

On View

Not on view

Period21st c

Classification(s)

Photograph

BibliographyBrier, Jessica D.. On the Grid: Ways of Seeing in Print. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar College in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., 2022, pl. 54; Hewitt, Leslie and Ellen Tani. Set Theory. Perrotin, 2019: pp. 28-33 ProvenancePurchased from Perrotin Gallery

Vassar Exhibitions

On the Grid: Ways of Seeing in Print

Chronostasia: Select Acquisitions 2020–2025

Exhibition HistoryLeslie Hewitt, Solo Exhibition, Perrotin, Paris, France, September 06 - 22, 2018;

Place, Group Exhibition, Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX, August 17 - September 28, 2019;

On the Grid: Ways of Seeing in Print, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, August 20 - December 22, 2022

Label TextThe two components of this work by Leslie Hewitt were developed through distinct photographic processes. The black-and-white gelatin silver print documents a photograph placed over printed matter, all resting on the studio floor’s wood grain. The chromogenic print responds through recollection: after completing the monochrome work, Hewitt recalled a specific green from the original materials and recreated it as a photogram in the darkroom. The series title borrows from jazz terminology, “riffing” describing improvisational play on a repeated musical phrase. Materials shift between documentary and sculptural function, blurring the boundary between image and object. Family photographs meet civil rights ephemera; hardwood floors anchor temporal fragments. The work asks viewers not simply to observe but to read, augmenting historical materials through formal reorganization and indirect reference.

DescriptionOne square image of even, dark green color and a black and white image of a small photograph of a television set in a room, the photo is placed on top of a series of pages, the top page being an image of a group of people standing in front of debris, possibly from a car. These pages sit on top of a wooden floor with narrow slats.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu