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Due Cavalli – The Collection: 20"h x 24"w, $200ea., johndinglerart at gmail dot com, 310.755.0930, 951.787.1881
Sono un uomo semplice che fa foto semplici, di oggetti ordinari, con una macchina fotografica di eccezione. (I am a simple man, taking ordinary pictures, with a noble camera.)
After the drama of the European Intersection Series in which I painted the streets blood red, I had hoped that I could keep this collection visually minimal, gaving attention to open space, mostly high key values, high but not glaring contrast, sometimes asymmetrical balance. I wanted their compositions to have an emotional serenity and stylistic elegance such as in an understated architectural edifice. Its clarity would be achieved with a sparseness and with an economy of means.
In composing the objects, one of my formal concerns was to give the illusion that the otherwise empty looking space be indeed full by adding cast shadows, by situating some objects in the distance, and angling the elements in such a way as to produce an ambiguous space. Of course, I did not articulate this beforehand. It is only now, after producing about thirty, that I can fully understand the result.
It's difficult for me to reconstruct how I first chose the pieces, how all the objects congealed, but it had to do with always glancing at a shelf I often pass full of random objects – mostly remnants from mixed media projects – that I had placed there. The objects were humble: toys and fundamental shapes. Among them were several plastic horses I had purchased from the ¢99 Store and stacks of round vintage circuit boards I had found at a dumpster. Then I brought back some empty gun shells, small and middle caliber, salvaged from the gun range when I visited my brother in Georgia in Nov. 2015. So I threw the shells and boards on the white studio table and placed the horses on it. I accidentally dropped one of them to the floor and broke its legs. I had a difficult time – I failed, really – gluing its delicate legs back together using my large fingers. So I decided to use hot melt glue and I could use it to fill in any missing parts. It was messy but But I could not locate one of the legs so one of the horses has only three legs. I also stuck the cone end of a clarinet there, situating everything in various configurations.
But I wanted to retain some otherworldliness, some unreality. I think I achieved this by using the shells in this way as well as removing nearly all evidence of a background, making it mostly all white.
The series is supposed to have some pathos in that the main horse is hobbled so, this is the narrative in some of the photos: A horse walks with three of its legs inside gun shells which would be torturous for long term use in real life.
So the video broadcast on TV showed a very bad deed done by one of Saddam Hussein's torturers. It was cruel and horrific. I can't forget it and it's been a curse.
I then imagined that his torturer anesthetizes the horse's legs below the knee so it feels no pain. He lops off its hoofs with a sciminar and quickly inserts the sumps into large gun shells full of wet, quick-dry concrete. Then Saddam and his henchmen take a seat in a theater to watch how the horse would react. As the anesthesia wears off, the horse tries to rise up from its prone position, but it reacts wildly and panics, dancing as the pain sears its being at each lift of the legs. So they get a kick out of the horse prancing before them in pain, awkwardly. Naturally, the horse will die soon but they had their cruel fun.
Also notice that the fourth leg in several images can't fit inside the a shell because it's too small and because they cut the leg too high up. The setting of the photo represents one of the moments when the horse is not aware of its precarious predicament.
So the undulating thick line in one of the images is the horse repeated and reduced five times to give the appearance of leaving. Its spirit is ascending.
The Due Cavalli series is yet another example of the wide range of interests that Dingler's mind traverses with an explorer's focus.
After the drama of the European Intersection Series in which I painted the streets blood red, I had hoped that I could keep this collection visually minimal, gaving attention to open space, mostly high key values, high but not glaring contrast, sometimes asymmetrical balance. I wanted their compositions to have an emotional serenity and stylistic elegance such as in an understated architectural edifice. Its clarity would be achieved with a sparseness and with an economy of means.
In composing the objects, one of my formal concerns was to give the illusion that the otherwise empty looking space be indeed full by adding cast shadows, by situating some objects in the distance, and angling the elements in such a way as to produce an ambiguous space. Of course, I did not articulate this beforehand. It is only now, after producing about thirty, that I can fully understand the result.
It's difficult for me to reconstruct how I first chose the pieces, how all the objects congealed, but it had to do with always glancing at a shelf I often pass full of random objects – mostly remnants from mixed media projects – that I had placed there. The objects were humble: toys and fundamental shapes. Among them were several plastic horses I had purchased from the ¢99 Store and stacks of round vintage circuit boards I had found at a dumpster. Then I brought back some empty gun shells, small and middle caliber, salvaged from the gun range when I visited my brother in Georgia in Nov. 2015. So I threw the shells and boards on the white studio table and placed the horses on it. I accidentally dropped one of them to the floor and broke its legs. I had a difficult time – I failed, really – gluing its delicate legs back together using my large fingers. So I decided to use hot melt glue and I could use it to fill in any missing parts. It was messy but But I could not locate one of the legs so one of the horses has only three legs. I also stuck the cone end of a clarinet there, situating everything in various configurations.
But I wanted to retain some otherworldliness, some unreality. I think I achieved this by using the shells in this way as well as removing nearly all evidence of a background, making it mostly all white.
The series is supposed to have some pathos in that the main horse is hobbled so, this is the narrative in some of the photos: A horse walks with three of its legs inside gun shells which would be torturous for long term use in real life.
So the video broadcast on TV showed a very bad deed done by one of Saddam Hussein's torturers. It was cruel and horrific. I can't forget it and it's been a curse.
I then imagined that his torturer anesthetizes the horse's legs below the knee so it feels no pain. He lops off its hoofs with a sciminar and quickly inserts the sumps into large gun shells full of wet, quick-dry concrete. Then Saddam and his henchmen take a seat in a theater to watch how the horse would react. As the anesthesia wears off, the horse tries to rise up from its prone position, but it reacts wildly and panics, dancing as the pain sears its being at each lift of the legs. So they get a kick out of the horse prancing before them in pain, awkwardly. Naturally, the horse will die soon but they had their cruel fun.
Also notice that the fourth leg in several images can't fit inside the a shell because it's too small and because they cut the leg too high up. The setting of the photo represents one of the moments when the horse is not aware of its precarious predicament.
So the undulating thick line in one of the images is the horse repeated and reduced five times to give the appearance of leaving. Its spirit is ascending.
The Due Cavalli series is yet another example of the wide range of interests that Dingler's mind traverses with an explorer's focus.
For artist John Dingler, the Due Cavalli is a playful examination of variations and shapes. "It emerges out of a passion that I have as a thoroughly committed artist and, from my European heritage, an understanding of beauty, elegance, story, as well as pathos in what synthetic landscapes can offer," he reflects.
This collection has countless images of exquisite quality, and Dingler has tried to encapsulate here the elegance of the forms each contains.
This collection has countless images of exquisite quality, and Dingler has tried to encapsulate here the elegance of the forms each contains.
