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Richard Misrach
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Richard Misrach’s Untitled (July 27, 2013 4:10PM), part of The Mysterious Opacity of Other Beings series, captures a pivotal moment within the artist’s broader examination of humanity's precarious coexistence with vast, indifferent natural landscapes. Building upon the foundational perspective established in his earlier On the Beach series—where elevated hotel balconies and high-angle framing turned sunbathers into tiny, isolated glyphs observed under the gaze of surveillance and aerial reconnaissance—this diptych pushes that inquiry further. By compressing the digital frame and compressing human subjects as nearly microscopic anomalies adrift in a vibrant, turquoise aqueous expanse, Misrach continues his career-long interrogation of scale and environmental observation.
Visually, the work employs a striking diptych structure that establishes a cinematic sense of motion and temporal sequence across the two contiguous pigment prints. The composition relies on a high-angle aerial perspective reminiscent of satellite imaging or aerial reconnaissance, flattening the water’s surface into a shimmering field of shifting green and blue tones. Across this fluid expanse, a lone figure is caught mid-stroke or suspended in water, their bodily vulnerability heightened by the sheer weight of the surrounding environment. The spatial tension between the vastness of the sea and the isolation of the swimmer is underscored by subtle ripples and chromatic gradients, while the full-bleed layout eliminates framing barriers to pull the viewer directly into the enveloping aquatic medium.
The diptych was part of the limited edition of the book.
Richard Misrach’s Untitled (July 27, 2013 4:10PM), part of The Mysterious Opacity of Other Beings series, captures a pivotal moment within the artist’s broader examination of humanity's precarious coexistence with vast, indifferent natural landscapes. Building upon the foundational perspective established in his earlier On the Beach series—where elevated hotel balconies and high-angle framing turned sunbathers into tiny, isolated glyphs observed under the gaze of surveillance and aerial reconnaissance—this diptych pushes that inquiry further. By compressing the digital frame and compressing human subjects as nearly microscopic anomalies adrift in a vibrant, turquoise aqueous expanse, Misrach continues his career-long interrogation of scale and environmental observation.
Visually, the work employs a striking diptych structure that establishes a cinematic sense of motion and temporal sequence across the two contiguous pigment prints. The composition relies on a high-angle aerial perspective reminiscent of satellite imaging or aerial reconnaissance, flattening the water’s surface into a shimmering field of shifting green and blue tones. Across this fluid expanse, a lone figure is caught mid-stroke or suspended in water, their bodily vulnerability heightened by the sheer weight of the surrounding environment. The spatial tension between the vastness of the sea and the isolation of the swimmer is underscored by subtle ripples and chromatic gradients, while the full-bleed layout eliminates framing barriers to pull the viewer directly into the enveloping aquatic medium.
The diptych was part of the limited edition of the book.
