The results of the election were hard to comprehend because they couldn't be understood through logical or rational thinking. The lack of comprehension of the results led to half the nation living in a continual state of bewilderment. Caleb Cain Marcus turned to photography as a means to make sense of and process his visceral reaction to the election. He photographed the blue sky because, like our thoughts and minds, it is abstract and seemingly undividable; and yet, humans create division with thoughts and ideas which have no physical presence.
He used his work to move beyond the feeling of hopelessness and despondency. The first step of the process was to physically divide the prints by tearing them in half. The next step was to join the two pieces together and finally to apply gold leaf along the tear to create a continuous gold line. Through this physical intervention to the photographs every print becomes a unique expression of an attempt to leave behind the feelings that resulted from the election.
Caleb Cain Marcus, a photographic artist living in New York City, has a practice rooted in photography that is centered around color which he explores through material and surface, and the tangible presence of space as a connector with the universe. His work juxtaposes the inkjet medium with hand applied mediums to produce color that is immersive, sensory and poetic. Through this physical intervention of the photographic paper, each print becomes unique. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the High Museum of Art and others.
