Choices

Hardcover, 88 pages, full color

12.5” x 10.3”

2008

ISBN 978-0-981-7909-1-6

More Than Meets the Eye

Review by Mario Muller, Independent Curator

Choices is the patently deadpan title of this work, and its descriptive accuracy and linguistic economy are spot­on for the photographic oeuvre presented in this series. A walk down the aisles of a 24-hour supermarket or drugstore offers a dizzying array cf choices. If a consumer is not armed with brand loyalty, this embarrassment of riches often induces a deer-in-headlights indecision. Any artist, be they armed with paintbrush or camera, makes conscious choices when confronting a blank canvas and its limitless potential. This choice is not unlike that which the individual faces in a consumer society. Richard Stultz melds the two when he trains his lens on the panoply of variations offered up by our economic culture.

What is shown is as important as what is not shown. Compositionally, Stultz tenders an all-over patterning that extends far beyond the picture plane. We know there are more variations to the left and to the right of us, above and below. The limited field of vision indexes the infinite.

There is also the choice that we, as viewers, have when reading a work of art. Here the oeuvre is generous in direct proportion to the viewer's temporal attention. The dimensional depth of "Bountiful" suddenly verges into landscape. Start reading the perfume labels and a sultry haiku forms on your lips. The esoteric quirks of a creative stock boy are evidenced by the brick pattern layout of soap in "Fortification”. Scan the expressions in "Faces” and countenances register that fall somewhere between the polarities of joy and the unhinged.

A moment of reflection and the significance of all the details are as overwhelming as the number of choices on display. In fifty years will this oeuvre, the triumvirate of basic household stuff, vanity items and cleaning products, act not only as successful art but also as economic archeology? The intellectual potential radiates under Stultz' cool and decidedly nonjudgmental gaze. Ultimately, the success of any work of art lies in the layers of intent and possible interpretation. The richness evidenced in this body of work reveals itself with each passing day.

Los Angeles, California

June 2008