Book Review: Units
Seth Lower. Image from ‘Units’ (MACK, 2019). Courtesy of the artist and MACK.
A ‘unit’ is defined as ‘an individual thing or person regarded as single and complete but which can also form an individual component of a larger or more complex whole’ or ‘a device that has a specified function, especially one forming part of a complex mechanism’. In his book Units, Seth Lower explores units associating to others and their possibility of becoming part of a larger picture, if you let it.
Seth Lower. Image from ‘Units’ (MACK, 2019). Courtesy of the artist and MACK.
Seth Lower. Image from ‘Units’ (MACK, 2019). Courtesy of the artist and MACK.
This book is filled with photographs of intentionally organized visual ironies that give the collection its humorous character. Seth Lower explores the world through small observations, looking at the random directions that life take in discrete ways. He uses photography to capture the humor he finds in places where irony constructs itself naturally and visually. He pairs unusual photographs, arranging them next to each other to create ironies. His associations are often absurd and random. They are inconsequential in terms of meaning but succeed in using that triviality to produce these curious visual mirrors. For example, the image of the two framed close up eyes next to the two cacti; their uncanny association is playful, it looks at analogous form and shape while at the same time aligning dissimilar textures and aspects to create similarity. The photographs touch upon the surreal, the randomness of life and the choices he make in choosing to reconcile visuals that don’t typically work together.
Seth Lower. Image from ‘Units’ (MACK, 2019). Courtesy of the artist and MACK.
Seth Lower. Image from ‘Units’ (MACK, 2019). Courtesy of the artist and MACK.
Units challenges objects, materials and daily situations and contructs them into graphic, visual abstractions. He makes us look at weird associations that are made impossible to ignore. It seems like he is interested in texture and patterns, as the collection commits pleasantly to geometrical constructions. He also plays with color and notices where colors strike, when they reoccur in different places. A page that struck me was the one where there is an image of clouds over a blue sky and next to it an image of melting snow in the grass. Who would’ve thought melting snow could look similar to clouds in the sky? Well, Seth Lower makes it possible. He carefully chooses his angles and with them transforms our perspectives. The choices he makes as a photographer to capture a specific angle conditions our eyes to see parallels, which create a fun and faceticious experience for the observer. Another thing he does is play with letters and words from found signs. One of my favorite units that plays with text and image is the photograph of the words
A/UTONONY/MOUS
P/ERFORMA/NCE
I/NNOVATI/ON
pictured through a window, where letters break off at the junction of the window grilles, placed next to the photograph of a tree growing around electrical wires.
This book is a delightful visual experiment that captivates and puts a smile on my face as soon as I encounter the silliness and weirdness of his clever juxtapositions.
Seth Lower. Image from ‘Units’ (MACK, 2019). Courtesy of the artist and MACK.
