JESSE POLLOCK’S QUIET ANTAGONISM
As one witty writer once quipped, “Whatever you inferred, I intended.” That is, every observer brings their own life history and subjective sensibilities to a piece of art, which may or may not be germane to the artist’s specific intent; however, it doesn’t ultimately matter if the viewer is moved in some particular way. Jesse Pollock’s work definitely moves me in a number of ways, with its quirky austerity and photojournalistic edge, even though I’m not privy to all the elements of the story; he is not interested in delineating the fighters duking it out mid-punch, but rather the prologue or epilogue to the event. Pollock’s images abound with potential energy and expended energy, like a weather forecaster or forensic expert who must piece together a cogent picture before or after the cataclysm. The result is a rhetorical, Kubrickian distance from the subject, a plaintive and composed portrait of chaos to be reconstructed off camera. As an antidote to this quiet antagonism, Pollock takes a number of meditative pictures with little or no narrative subtext, exhibiting a more Eastern sensibility. Visit his site and blog to see more of his work.
