Dawn Till Dusk at Jen Beckman Gallery

“Rather, we feel the essence of the early morning sun, the damp trees’ leaves hanging loosely, the gloominess screening the coming bright day, and an overall quiet, groggy stillness.”

Mike Sinclair, Anne’s Wedding, Overland Park, Kansas, 2011. Photograph. Courtesy of Jen Beckman Gallery.

Youngna Park, Balloons (Midtown, Manhattan), 2011. Photograph. Courtesy of Jen Beckman Gallery.

Dawn Till Dusk at Jen Beckman Gallery

Jessica Geiger

“Dawn Till Dusk,” at the Jen Beckman Gallery on the Lower East Side of New York, seeks to explore our impression of time, forcing us to examine how human social structure defines time as opposed to time as an abstract concept. This exhibit is comprised of a collection of photographs, paintings, and collages from established and emerging contemporary artists. The pieces are arranged in a random manner in the gallery, united only by their progression from early morning to late evening. Some of the works capture a time of day through their subject matter; others portray time through more atmospheric or emotional elements.

By examining the entity of time through both abstract and lifelike images, noting the presence or absence of human figures, we start to recognize that time is a human construct. When people are present in a work we attempt to identify with the characters on a personal level, wondering how the time of day depicted in the image is affecting them. In contrast, works devoid of human presence allow us to absorb the atmospheric elements of the illustrated time, rather than funneling the illustration through our preconceived ideas of human society.

Looking to one of the most visually striking pieces in the exhibit, Huka Falls by Derek Henderson, a pattern begins to emerge. Huka Falls was one of the first pieces of the exhibit—an early morning piece. It features two cliffs shielding a waterfall shrouded in opaque fog, the pale sun rising in the background behind on of the cliffs.

Somewhat desolate, Huka Falls is bereft of any noticeable human presence and oddly does not cause the viewer to wonder what a human in this setting would be doing at this time of morning. Rather, we feel the essence of the early morning sun, the damp trees’ leaves hanging loosely, the gloominess screening the coming bright day, and an overall quiet, groggy stillness. Time stands on its own, unencumbered by the viewer’s knowledge of human social structure.

Another stimulating photograph is Anne’s Wedding, Overland Park, Kansas, by Mike Sinclair. Showing a late afternoon scene in a housing development, with multiple identical houses sitting in the background, the image also features a casual party scene in the foreground. Chairs are splayed every which way; some guests sit whilst others stand in small groups as the sun sets behind the sparse vegetation in the development yard. Instead of allowing the viewer to appreciate the beauty of the glowing, pulsating atmosphere created by a setting orb of sunlight, we are thrust back onto the banality of the scene. We wonder if the guests are hot in the late afternoon sun, and if they’re bored of being in the backyard all day. Time is not our focus, but rather how the people depicted are functioning within the skeleton of time.

Perhaps if the exhibit was not so aptly named “Dawn Till Dusk,” it would not occur to us to consider such trivial meanderings, and to consider the function of time as it interacts with humanity, objects, and nature. However, this title unites otherwise disparate works in our minds, allowing us to extract our own conclusions about the meaning of time from photographs and paintings, abstract forms and concrete images, and works of contemporary artists, old and new.