James Balla
What I see when you're not here
July 17 - August 5, 2020
This group of pencil drawings was started after a previous series I made that depicted details and images of everyday things in Venice, Italy. I took that idea and applied it to things seen around Provincetown, primarily during the winter; the time when the crowds are gone, when people are not here, except the locals, and we have time to make note of the small things, or the personal things, or the simple reading of a book or watching of a film. Taking details from local signs, hand painted names on fishing boats, nautical wallpaper used annually in the windows of the Provincetown Bookshop, and even personal items such as chapter heading images from the Plague, or an echo of an earlier Batman drawing, these are intimate, abstracted glimpses of daily moments in a Provincetown winter/spring.
The title of the show as well as the start of the drawings began long before any hint of pandemic had occurred in the world. Looking at it now, it seems ironic that one of the first drawings, Batmen, depicts repeated images of the epitome of a masked man. Closed took on much meaning as the shutdown began - it was from a handwritten sign in a friend’s store window. Closed? Close? These words and partial words took on new meaning in the midst of the quarantine. We all are closed. We are all close, but need to remain apart. Close it down? The meaning slides and shifts, much like our discovery of life’s lessons during a time of pandemic. The flag images are from a decorative paper used every winter to cover the windows of the Provincetown Bookshop, depicted here in the orientation that was in the window, not as normally used. Alpha= “Diver Down, Keep Clear”, while Bravo signifies “Dangerous Cargo”.
The book image of Death comes from Albert Camus’ The Plague, and the film image is from Death in Venice; both timeless, yet extremely timely and meaningful now. The unrequited and all-consuming longing of Aschenbach for Tadzio echoes my longing for the strangely quiet and reborn Venice: out of reach. All-consuming.
Helltown is the name of a local fishing boat, as is Fisherman. Reducing the images to details of the larger whole imparts new meaning and even a suggestion of a vague and strange landscape. Late Day Fireplace becomes an abstract and hard to discern image of raking late day winter sun across the brick face of our fireplace. And Paper Ornaments are taken from homemade paper Xmas bulbs and ornaments I had made and given to my mother, and after her death had hanging in my studio.
The title of the show as well as the start of the drawings began long before any hint of pandemic had occurred in the world. Looking at it now, it seems ironic that one of the first drawings, Batmen, depicts repeated images of the epitome of a masked man. Closed took on much meaning as the shutdown began - it was from a handwritten sign in a friend’s store window. Closed? Close? These words and partial words took on new meaning in the midst of the quarantine. We all are closed. We are all close, but need to remain apart. Close it down? The meaning slides and shifts, much like our discovery of life’s lessons during a time of pandemic. The flag images are from a decorative paper used every winter to cover the windows of the Provincetown Bookshop, depicted here in the orientation that was in the window, not as normally used. Alpha= “Diver Down, Keep Clear”, while Bravo signifies “Dangerous Cargo”.
The book image of Death comes from Albert Camus’ The Plague, and the film image is from Death in Venice; both timeless, yet extremely timely and meaningful now. The unrequited and all-consuming longing of Aschenbach for Tadzio echoes my longing for the strangely quiet and reborn Venice: out of reach. All-consuming.
Helltown is the name of a local fishing boat, as is Fisherman. Reducing the images to details of the larger whole imparts new meaning and even a suggestion of a vague and strange landscape. Late Day Fireplace becomes an abstract and hard to discern image of raking late day winter sun across the brick face of our fireplace. And Paper Ornaments are taken from homemade paper Xmas bulbs and ornaments I had made and given to my mother, and after her death had hanging in my studio.