I ran into this photograph last week at Platform Gallery and couldn’t help but think of Obama’s campaign and its bubble of hope.
The picture was taken (by the artist Adam Ekberg) in an emptied-out Chicago apartment. Ekberg worked for hours to get a bubble right in the center of the frame at the moment when he took the picture, so that it would be hanging there as fragile as anything but forever intact—just so. The angle of the sun means it’s a little late in the day; in this apartment someone has moved out but no one has moved in yet. This is a national portrait of today, January 19, 2009. Tomorrow will be different.
“The angle of the sun means it’s a little late in the day”
Or early in the day… (do you think before you write?)
A good project for photoshoppers to do something similar in less than an hour.
Part of me wants to snark at the stretch performed to link this picture to Obama
But the rest of me wants to celebrate this time and every right we have to make links and reflections and metaphors.
Happy 1.19.09: Bush’s last day, everyone.
Oh, this is beautiful.
And Non @3, I almost said the exact same thing.
i wouldn’t even have noticed the bubble if you hadn’t mentioned it.
@1: yeah, he probably woke up at 4am to spend hours getting the bubble in the center of the room for the photo… (do you think before you write?)
Chicago is on a near-perfect grid. The bare branch outside the window, with just a few leaves on the branch below, indicates late fall, so low sun.
Assuming the artist didn’t reverse the picture, this window either faces South, making this a morning picture, or it faces West, making it late afternoon.
Artists don’t wake up early. Bias afternoon.
Hey Jen,
I think Charles logged into your account to make another nonsensical post. Please make sure to log off of shared computers!
yeah, because an emptied-out chicago apartment is such a stretch to obama. do you think the photographer wasn’t thinking about obama? commenters: your reading comprehension sucks! you are commenters for a reason.
This is a marvelous post, Jen—the best I’ve read yet today. Thank you to you and to the haters: get stuffed.
“Tomorrow will be different.”
The bubble will have burst?
10
So now Chicago = Obama?
A metropolitan population of topic +9 MILLION people = latent/direct relevance to Obama???
I love him as much as the next person but
Bitch please.
Really Jen Graves? Because personally, the photo iseems depective of something vacant, like Bush’s vacancy from office–and a brand new day.
Or your vacant brain…..
lmao, commenters using “Bitch please!”
I just didn’t want it to be missed.
Should it have been in italics and with swirlies?
~Bitch Please~
@14, it’s time to clean your bong. Really.
@17
analogizing this empty room to president obama and I’M the one who needs to clean my bong?
In the words of Chris Crocker:
“Bitch, pul-LEAZE!”
I’ve seen this bay window / turret room on a porn site at regular intervals.
the depths that unimaginative morons will go to find relevance even in the most irrelevant! Jesus, get some real talent and photograph something worth looking at! Some asshole in a shitty gallery will charge $10,000 for this peace of shit.
Man, I can’t believe people will get this worked up over someone’s feeling about a picture. Art has to evoke emotion, it doesn’t matter which or whose particular emotion that is. This certainly hits a poignant chord for me, I can absolutely see where Jen’s coming from. Is everyone so cynical they can’t enjoy or even notice the mood shift? I get shivers just thinking about all that today means.
When I saw the odd curve of the window area, I thought, “That looks like my old apartment.” Then I saw that it’s in Chicago, where I live… it might be MY old apartment! Whoah!
No, it’s less than $10,000.
@20 — It’s piece, not peace you moron