Sublime Relevance

Bitforms Gallery specializes in media-driven, (mostly) digital works and is one of the more distinctive galleries in the city. They have included robotic installations, sound-scapes (that respond to the viewers interactions) and automated paintings.

The current exhibition of Michael Najjar’s work, High Altitude, seemed like a departure at first: Twelve panoramic ink jet prints of photographs of mountain landscapes. Even at first glance, however, something seemed to be not quite normal. The density of these works is enormous, and the contrast is sometimes unreal. This is hyper-realism at its most sublime.

I found myself being continuously drawn into these large works, feeling the space not so much as a version of reality, but more so as if I were an avatar in cyberspace.

I hadn’t read the artist’s statement at that point, but was intrigued by the “otherness” of these prints. I often like to experience the artworks before reading about them or talking to the artist. This way, I can gauge the success of the artist’s intentions. I sensed there was something very deep beneath the surface, in this case, something of a slow-burning feeling of doom—and my first intuitions were confirmed. Even before I knew what this was about, I knew what Najjar was trying convey.

These aren’t mere photographs, rather they are digital hybrids of a specific kind. These works, by the Berlin-based photographer, explore the idea of risk taking. Najjar uses mountain peaks and rock formations as metaphors for the modern, computer-driven economy, while somewhat ironically utilizing digital processing.

All of this is based on a recent mountain climbing photography expedition. Najjar climbed Mount Aconcagua in the Andes, the highest mountain in the Americas, in January of 2009. For three weeks, Najjar photographed this wonder of nature, providing the raw material from which he would later adapt these prints.

The overall theme is an attempt to visualize the past 30 years of global stock indices. Through a process that is beyond tedious, Najjar altered every rock to reflect the charting of the markets. The result is basically a mash up of Mount Aconcagua with stock market charts. The underlying presence of this data supplies an unsettling vibe which is dark in an unassuming, yet dramatic way.

Najjar makes comparisons between the timeline of the mountain with the stock market by emphasizing (and highlighting) each individual rock, crack and crevice along with a sharp juxtaposition of the skyline, melding the mountain with the data. This premise is further driven by exploring the era of the information age: the computer-driven systems that predict and report. As computer systems are updated constantly, they also usher in an age of constant flux and uncertainty. “The information society has brought about a tectonic shift in our understanding of space and time,” Najjar explains in a statement that accompanies the exhibition.

I’ve seen artists attempt to tackle the financial crisis before, some more successful than others. Often this kind of art reduces itself to “in your face” proclamations or overtly obvious analogies. Najjar succeeds because he expresses the internal turbulence and relates it, in a subtle way, to nature. Brilliant.

Michael Najjar’s High Altitude through Oct. 24 at Bitforms Gallery NYC, 529 W. 20th St., 2nd fl. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-366-6939