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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Six: Vantage Point makes the difference > Metallic man, Gardner, Oregon, 2006
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11-JUN-2006

Metallic man, Gardner, Oregon, 2006

A local sculptor stores this life sized bronze figure just behind his gallery. It’s not ready for public showing, but it certainly makes a surreal focal point for this image. The key is my vantage point. The sculpture stands at the corner of the building, which allowed me to move behind it and link it to two separate walls at the same time. I abstract it, and at the same time pose a question: if it could move, which way would it go? He seems hemmed in by the stuff that stands behind him on the left. But the dolly that was no doubt used to get him where he is, stands waiting for him on his right. The rear vantage point intensifies the incongruity of his placement, and implies a potential future course of incongruous action.

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Phil Douglis21-Aug-2006 21:26
The vantage point here is everything, Chris. It was the only camera position that abstracted the statue, related it to both sides of the house, and seemed to imply a decision...."which way to go."
Chris Sofopoulos21-Aug-2006 07:53
Hehehhhh.. I laughed so much because you made it looks like he asks which way would he go? So smart vantage point Phil!
Phil Douglis09-Jul-2006 22:40
Thanks, Iris, for raising this image to a form of poetry. Your "Metallic Man" reminds me of T.S. Eliot's 1925 poem, "The Hollow Men." Particularly the second verse: "Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralyzed force, gesture without motion." The question this image makes you raise: "Have we become a nation of metallic men, devoid of feeling, embarking on a dark path?" is answered by Eliot : "There are no eyes here in this valley of dying stars, In this hollow valley, This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms." You say this is a scary thought to contemplate. It is -- if we fail, as you say, to alter our direction, Eliot's famous final four lines may well be our epitaph: "This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper."

Was I thinking of T.S. Eliot's words when I made this image? Not really. But the more I look at it, the more I see it as a visual metaphor representing the lost souls that both you and he are telling us about in your words.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)09-Jul-2006 19:19
Here is the metallic man, by nature soulless and devoid of feeling, poised at an intersection of opposing forces of light and darkness. Which path will he take? He appears to be turned toward the darkness and the dolly seems ready to take him in that direction. Have we become a nation of metallic men, devoid of feeling, embarking on a dark path? It's a scary thought to contemplate. Perhaps the light on the dolly offers some hope that the direction can be altered.
Phil Douglis18-Jun-2006 18:27
Glad you mention the windows, Kal. The are almost as surreal as the man of metal. The sculptor has sprayed the inside of them with a light coating of yellow paint, which makes them all the more spectral.
Kal Khogali18-Jun-2006 14:36
You don't mention the refelection in the windows Phil, that tell of a real world elsewhere. This is surrealistic stuff. K
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