Michael J. Dalton II

BUILDING VIOLENCE

JUNE 30, 2010- AUGUST 4, 2010

OPENING RECEPTION:

JULY 2^ND, 2010 5PM-9PM

The 3rd Street Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of photographer Michael J. Dalton II.

A select group of photographs and found objects from Dalton’s on-going body of work, Building Violence will be on display that provides us with examples of his landscapes, architecture and portraiture work. Dalton’s images uniquely portray a topographical documentary of the industrial northeast in constant flux.

By photographing creation and creator, destruction and destroyer, Building Violence examines the topographic effects of commerce, urban planning, gentrification, eminent domain and the result of man’s ability to totally affect the landscape as he sees fit.

This project directs the viewer’s attention to an overdeveloped industrialized and sometimes toxic part of a specifically American landscape. Coping with the cycles of demand, production and modernization, the landscape is caught in a violent destruction and construction process.

However, Building Violence seems to lack a formal critique on modern building practices as its author removes himself and allows for a more democratic way of seeing how the landscape evolves in all its subtle absurdity. With a stronger attention to formal elements and utilizing before-and-after comparisons, images like, “Tree Brace” soften the violence of the project as a whole, downplaying it as a critique.

Dalton also turns his lens towards the people who are involved in the building and destroying process. By creating portraits that mimic some of the structures found in Building Violence he acknowledges the human hand involved in physically creating and destroying, as well as the people who are influential in the changes that occur around the Northeast.

The found objects exhibited are items Dalton had encountered while working on some of the same construction sites he photographs. They serve as physical evidence along with the use of his 8×10 camera and personally printing on 30×40” chromogenic photographic paper mounted on plexi-glass.

The Industrial and commercial landscape that are shown in Building Violence are captured in moments of upheaval in both creation and destruction. Sometimes this change is caught in a standstill and is left to decay among the asphalt, concrete and steel, only to be overgrown by weeds. It is up to the hands of humanity to decide how The Northeast will appear—and it is up to the viewer to decide whether the evolution of the land is beneficial to its community or destructive in nature.

Michael J. Dalton II graduated from The School of Visual Arts with a BFA in photography and has been shown in galleries in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. Dalton currently lives in Brooklyn NY and works as a Construction laborer in NYC.