I didn’t know quite what to expect. I only saw one piece in person prior to the show, but what I knew from that one piece was that he had a great grasp on his medium. I checked out whatever I was able to find a week leading up to the opening. His multimedia work has a lot going on to say the least. The postcard for the show alone lured me in: Deer facing off in an end-of-the-world mess full of power lines, garbage, broken down structures, a McDonald’s an
d a bowling alley.
Lana and I picked up Nick Pedersen and his friend Dan from 30th St. Station an hour before the opening. They hung the show earlier in the day after a two-plus hour ride in from Brooklyn. Nick seemed as anxious for the show as he did just to know about the city and what was around him, as well as who we were and what we did. (We had all met briefly during the summer at the official opening of the Slingluff Gallery where we were part of the Group Birdhouse Show.)
Pulling up to the show, I was pretty struck by the layout. The walls were filled with a nice mix of large-scale work on thick wooden box frames, as well as a huge collage of black framed prints. Titled “The Reclamation,” the show is a scathing commentary largely focused on humans’ impact on nature and vice versa, where images are manipulated into a digital collage of improbable landscapes. Pedersen creates a hopeless habitat for wildlife where any inkling of home can not be found. The show’s title piece, an expansive 30” x 75” five panel creation, is where Pedersen’s theme comes full circle: Cityscape structures begin to be overrun with greenery and wildlife and pre-industrial man relearns survival.
This show will be up through November at The Slingluff Gallery in Fishtown, Philadelphia. You can view the show at slingluffgallery.com.
Cheers for now.
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