[spectre] ASH IS

[{ brad brace }]

ASH IS

These are my raw production stills, made from late-1970's TV character-generator studio
equipment, for a series of unique video-detective-poems/stories that combined
interdependent social/narrative smoking conventions/structure with a live-shot of wispy,
smoldering cigarettes/cigars/reefers that coincide with the length of the
stanza/story-chapter displayed on-screen. The angular/vicious, clumsy, rastorized,
monospaced character-font is very appropriate, amplifying the facets in the glass
ash-tray -- perfectly generic... the paused video-tape generates a distorted pattern.
Not in consequently, video rasters look like lines of ash. The smoking culture/language
is all but extinct in populist Western society. The orchestrated pauses/punctuation in
dialogue/intercourse and dramatic emphasis suggest social/narrative interaction and yet
singular identity is necessarily cancelled/snuffed-out.

A SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR FAILURE

The act of smoking is often a substitute for conversation or effectively directs it. The
smoking author, smoking characters and smoking reader are chemically linked, prompted by
textual reference. The detached narrator/detective, always waiting/watching... lights
another. Lungs, nostrils and lips.

Concurrently I was also interested in the fixed physicality of gesture suggested by the
positions of the cigarettes in their packages as displayed/proffered in print
advertisements. This resulted in a number of enamel outline paintings that likely no
longer exist. I remember white outlines on vast deep shiny royal blue backgrounds.
Despite frequent application, there was never any institutional support for these works.
Corruption run rampant. The detective genre has been an important aspect in my work: by
investigating clues/references history is rewritten, causing even non-existing
events/crimes/identities to actually occur/materialize.

I can envision a small set of deluxe enlarged prints of just the frozen-video ashtray to
accompany this publication. Wouldn't that be cool!


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9GY2G2

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CRYSTAL VEHICLES (IMMACULATE COLLISIONS)

This is a series of photos made from overlaid xeroxed-acetate copies from an auto-trader
magazine -- and compressed/positioned in the big billboard-sized
Millennium/Crystal-Palace photo-mural [bbrace.net/millennium.html]. Seems to me that I
attempted to align the windshields when making the 5x7 prints in the late 70's.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9QGKEY

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http://www.bbrace.net/pi.html
http://www.bbrace.net/@38.jpeg
http://bbrace.net/millennium.html
http://bradbrace.net/millennium.html

/:b