Ari Marcopoulos: Within Arm’s Reach
by Anne Colvin
Cairo, Sonoma, 2006; Xerox print; 53 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist, Ratio 3, San Francisco, and The Project, New York.
Ari Marcopoulos marks his world through lens-based images. The beauty of his work lies in the remnants of experience delicately outlined in a snowy landscape or a bodily wound. His narratives—for the most part populated by male physicality—are full of music, art, skateboarding, snowboarding, New York City, Sonoma, and his family.
Rachel Williams (1993) directs her skater-torn arms at the camera, a bandage carelessly hangs from an elbow. Bike Crash 11 (2002) displays a close-up of two grazed, dressing-stained knees, and the eponymous Man with Scars, Jamaica (1987) smokes a spliff. Tracks slash the crisp snow to ribbons in Daytona (2000). Two teens sleep in MiniDisc, Riksgrausen (1998), one wearing a neck brace, while a third listens to music, very matter of fact.
A question mark resounds in the form of a haunting video loop: a boy wearing a wool hat stares into the camera unflinching, his right eye and cheek swollen. Off-camera laughter adds to the disquieting tone.
The impressive array of prints includes large-format Xeroxes, which are extensions of the artist’s self-published zines. In Cairo (2007)—monumental in size, evocatively raw and grainy—there’s a hint of something near the mouth. Big dirty close-ups of bruised hands and scratched fingers form playful patterns in Four Hands (2007). The density of these images hangs heavy.
Cairo is the name of one of Ari’s sons. He stands in Cairo, Sonoma (2006), lanky and awkward, somewhere between a place and a person, just within arm’s reach.
Dedicated to Franz Schnaas, 1966-2009.
Curated by Stephanie Cannizzo, Ari Marcopoulos: “Within Arm’s Reach” is on view at the University of California Berkeley Art Museum until February 7, 2010.
