The S K Josefsberg Studio is pleased to present the photo-tableau work of
Patrick Nagatani, on view at the gallery June 6 - July 13, 2002.

Patrick Nagatani’s primary concern is the conflict of ideologies, often illustrated by a clash between cultural fortitude and scientific faith. Nagatani’s collaged commentaries earmark the ironies of heritage bracing against, or most often embracing, technology’s infiltration. The exhibition at the S K Josefsberg Studio will feature two of Nagatani’s most prominent series: Nuclear Enchantment and the Nagatani/Ryoichi Excavation project.

The more renown Nuclear Enchantment, addresses the spurious normality of Nuclear power and armament. Nagatani uses his now home state of New Mexico as his stage—the Mecca of the Nuclear Age— its desert landscape pocked with testing sites and facilities: “[New Mexico] has the most extensive nuclear weapons research, management, training, and testing facilities and organization in the United States." Most, if not all, of Nagatani’s resultant images are a build up of layers. One example from this series, titled Contaminated Radioactive Sediment, Mortandad Canyon, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, 1990, is a seemingly charmed winter wonderland much in the vein of Hiroshige, but, as the title tells, the serene landscape featured is the tainted Mortandad Canyon southeast of Los Alamos where radioactive waste has been dumped since the 1940's. In developing this piece, Nagatani began with his straight photograph of the Canyon and altered the sky to a wood block printers palette in printing and expertly added (or subtracted, rather) big fluffy faux snowflakes to complete the deceptive picture-postcard-worthy scene. In melding fact and fiction, Nagatani purposefully takes on a humorist's tone. All the same, his sci-fi creations impart a moralizing message that is distinct, certain & specific.

Examples from the Nagatani/Ryoichi Excavation project will also be displayed. This body of work had its source in the excavations of the Japanese archeologist Ryoichi, a purely fictitious character and course of events developed by Nagatani. Leading the viewer down a make-believe path, Nagatani describes Ryoichi’s undertaking: "In 1985, Ryoichi and his team received a set of maps which were interpreted as pointing to sites scattered throughout the world. The sites were in areas with significant archaeological or historical remains...or with monuments to our own technological age.... The archaeologists spent the next fifteen years secretly excavating the sites and then removing all traces of their finds...” Using made-up field journals as his basis (or anecdotal detail), Nagatani literally recreated specific and historically relevant geographic sites in model form and adds the automobile—a common object of contemporary life. In one image, descriptively titled Cadillac Town Car, The Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, U.S.A., 1992, he has inserted a hobby-shop Cadillac Town Car in the diorama's foreground, seemingly being unearthed, drawing attention away from the Paleolithic drawings in the background. The rest of the series is no different, only the subjects (Aston Martin to Volkswagen) and the "locations" change (Lascaux to Stonehenge). In some cases Nagatani has indeed photographed actual sites and added his fictitious remnants in the darkroom. For most images, however, the places created are meticulously crafted artifice, blurring the viewers sense of what is truly real. All the same, Nagatani’s farcical history may well prove prophetic.

Nagatani’s methodology began in his collaboration with the painter Andrée Tracey from 1983-89. His earlier work, such as with Tracey, involved a 20 x 24 inch Polaroid. In recent years he utilizes more modest equipment, including a 6x7 Pentax and occasionally a 4x5. Initially photographing significant locations, much of the work is done in the darkroom and/or studio. Nagatani’s art is truly a collaborative effort: Other photographers will often help in engineering scenes, while master printers will work closely with him to achieve his preferred hyper palette, and enthusiastic students often assist as set painters or actors for his constructs.

Patrick Nagatani's photo-tableaux have been exhibited internationally since 1976, including at the Art Institute of Boston , Museum of Photographic Arts , San Diego; and the Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England. Numerous books have featured his work including Seizing the Light: A History of Photography by Robert (2000), and Photography by Barbara London and John Upton (1998). His work is in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art ; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Denver Art Museum International Center for Photography, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art ; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Polaroid Fellowship and the NEA Visual Arts Fellowship. Currently a Professor of Art at the University of New Mexico, Nagatani lives in Albuquerque.

Reception for the Artist Wednesday June 5, 2002 5:30-7:30 p.m.

First Thursday Reception June 6, 2002 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.