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The Morning News

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Currently: four walls and adobe slabs
Today’s Feature: “Drink Your Meds” by Lauren Frey
Latest in Digest: Animal Collective

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A Previous Life

A note on ‘A Previous Life,’ by Jim Coudal: There was a building there. There will be a building there. In between, Marshall Sokoloff was pointing his camera straight down, composing. He took these photos over six weeks in September and October of 2002 in Toronto.

In the life of this plot of land, this is a temporary condition, this two-dimensional state, filled with cracks and gravel and textures and chipping paint. The straight lines and sharp angles are the remnants of a previous life. Marshall found a present-tense there and has documented it in sweet, mathematical compositions.

Light and tone are important. The series has a lovely feel, like the end of the day, but it’s the cropping within the camera that appeals to me. His balancing and editing of shapes within the frame’s rectangle can be seen as an exercise. Each picture in the series answers the same set of structural questions in a slightly different manner. Collectively, the series seems more musical than anything else, like variations on a simple, precise melody.

—Published March 13, 2003 » Email this » Save this » More TMN Galleries

TODAY’S FEATURE

Drink Your Meds

The impulse to weigh decisions with coffee spoons can seem charmingly eccentric on TV. But real-life obsessive compulsive disorder, writes LAUREN FREY, is no fun, what with the imminent death and all.

OF THE EGGS AND MILK

After the Twelve Days of Christmas

Dennis Mahoney receives 184 birds and 12 trees, to say the least.

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DIGEST

Animal Collective

Animal Collective is a symbol of hope and inspiration for those yet to grab hold of 2009; dive in, don’t hesitate, take the risk. You won’t understand their new album yet, but it feels damn interesting.