The Pineapple Chicken Blog

Hi everyone,

I cannot believe that it has been a month since I last wrote a blog post. I apologise that I lost track of time as work has been crazy. I wanted to share this exhibition with you all before it ends! There is a lot of exciting things to catch up on, so I hope I will get a chance to blog more during the next few weeks (as I am on holiday).

Gregory Crewdson has an exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery in London titled The Cathedral of Pines. This highly personal showcase of large photos focused on human interactions within nature. At the time of these photos, the artist had just gone through a very difficult divorce and wanted to be away from the city. As a result, all the photos were taken in the small rural town of Becket, Massachusetts. The dystopian landscape focuses on feelings of isolation and sadness.

For a Londoner like me, I have always found rural America rather disconcerting. The idea you are so far away from the next town/civilisation is not something I am accustomed to. I think this eerie-ness is brilliantly encapsulated in his photos. I was particularly drawn to them because they made me feel uncomfortable yet invited me to delve more into each photo.

Each of the photos has a human subject but nearly all void of expression. It does give this sense of visual suspense or one could argue, they are just super creepy. Each individual’s position is so carefully curated which adds to the oddness. The fact that each person had no expression allowed for other subtle details to become highlighted. As a viewer, you had to search for clues and really look at what the photo had provided to arrive at a conclusion. In each, you will notice a few repeating details, such as dirty blankets and old books, I don’t know why and I am still wondering why Gregory decided that this was necessary.

Most of the subjects do not wear clothes, which I realised is something that I often use to gauge a character, as it is surprisingly telling of a person. I loved the fact that the photos intrigued me, despite being a bit odd, yet did not resort to explicitness or gore to shock or bring emotion out of the audience. Not sure whether any of you have gone to see the exhibit and thought the same thing?

The exhibit is available until the 8th October 2017 and is free before 12pm. I highly recommend a visit and rate it 4 out of 5 pineapples 🙂 so do hurry!!#

With sweet and sour love,

Pineapple Chicken