Boston Herald
Boston, Mass.; Aug 3, 2001; JOANNE SILVER;
Abstract:
“Industrial Inspiration: Images of the Old Northern Avenue Bridge” – a free public art exhibition situated on the bridge through Thursday – takes the time to examine this piece of turn-of-the-20th- century infrastructure. Enlarged and weatherproofed photographs by eight contemporary artists hang from the metal supports, along with one 1919 image, in which Boston’s Custom House looms as the tallest building on the horizon. (The image by exhibition curator William Reyelt was not yet in place at the opening.)
Robert Souther’s sepia-toned scene has the hazy atmosphere of a vintage photograph – except that the elements recorded include some that are brand-new, such as the Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse on the South Boston end of the bridge. In an instant, this image takes a single moment in time and expands it into something lasting. Shrouded in misty snow, [Don Eyles]’ bridge also transcends the photographic present and becomes emblematic – reminiscent of Alfred Stieglitz’s famous view of New York’s Flatiron Building.
[Walter Crump] adds accident to the bridge’s intentional order in his organic-looking array of curving arms. As one of the pinhole cityscapes Crump calls “The Bent City Project,” the Old Northern Avenue Bridge photograph provides the most startling view in this installation. Using the age-old technology of pinhole photography, Crump bends the horizontal and translates something static into something that appears to have come to life.
Full Text:
Snowy twilight descends on the Old Northern Avenue Bridge in Don Eyles’ black-and-white photograph, softening the muscular span with white. The century-old structure is all twists and turns in a pinhole image by Walter Crump, dark tentacles reaching against a yellow sky.
Todd Gieg captures the crystalline geometry of its beams and cables. Joseph Heroun glimpses the shadowy metal moments before dawn filters across Boston Harbor.
These are not the images most people have of the bridge. For almost 100 years, the Old Northern Avenue Bridge has linked Boston’s waterfront with the Commonwealth Flats of South Boston, providing a way over the Fort Point Channel for horse-drawn vehicles, cars, trains and pedestrians.
Travelers tend to focus on where they are going, not on the process of getting there. They are not inclined to linger over a 1905 triple-barreled, pinned, through-truss, swing bridge – or its aesthetic merits.
“Industrial Inspiration: Images of the Old Northern Avenue Bridge” – a free public art exhibition situated on the bridge through Thursday – takes the time to examine this piece of turn-of-the-20th- century infrastructure. Enlarged and weatherproofed photographs by eight contemporary artists hang from the metal supports, along with one 1919 image, in which Boston’s Custom House looms as the tallest building on the horizon. (The image by exhibition curator William Reyelt was not yet in place at the opening.)
Now closed to all but foot traffic, and facing an uncertain future, the bridge remains a remarkable visual presence. Artists, especially those living or working in the Fort Point Channel area, have been mesmerized by its form, history and constancy amid change.
Because commercial development threatens a number of studios in the Fort Point neighborhood, the creative community has banded together to produce a variety of public artworks at local sites. The Old Northern Avenue Bridge resonates well as a location and subject for this collective vision.
Some take the long view of this rugged construction. In Eric Lewandowski’s bold image of the bridge in its closed position, the structure assumes panoramic proportions, spreading over three separate panels. A small white boat in the foreground, straddling two of the sections, appears fleeting against the backdrop of the bridge’s expanse. The triptych effectively conveys the essence of the span – a link between one land mass and another, between water and sky, past and future.
Robert Souther’s sepia-toned scene has the hazy atmosphere of a vintage photograph – except that the elements recorded include some that are brand-new, such as the Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse on the South Boston end of the bridge. In an instant, this image takes a single moment in time and expands it into something lasting. Shrouded in misty snow, Eyles’ bridge also transcends the photographic present and becomes emblematic – reminiscent of Alfred Stieglitz’s famous view of New York’s Flatiron Building.
Even without the context of its surroundings, the Old Northern Avenue Bridge can stand on its own physical strengths – as giant sculpture or dynamic abstraction. George Vasquez confronts this stark form head-on, with his lens trained directly at one of the metal uprights, criss-crossed for reinforcement. In this rhythmic rendition of the bridge’s energy, Vasquez allows sunlight and shade to echo the alternating regions of solid matter and airy space.
Crump’s pinhole photograph and Gieg’s inkjet made from a Polaroid both narrow the focus even further, reducing the utilitarian structure to a mysterious abstraction almost beyond recognition. Like Vasquez, Gieg revels in patterns of light and architecture.
Crump adds accident to the bridge’s intentional order in his organic-looking array of curving arms. As one of the pinhole cityscapes Crump calls “The Bent City Project,” the Old Northern Avenue Bridge photograph provides the most startling view in this installation. Using the age-old technology of pinhole photography, Crump bends the horizontal and translates something static into something that appears to have come to life.
Copyright Boston Herald Library Aug 3, 2001
