Francis Cape Lecture 11-18-09

I attended Francis Cape's lecture on Wednesday and found it to be thoroughly boring and dissappointing. I found the a lot of the work to be unattainable, and without the help of a long discription, I would not have had any idea of what he was referencing. Even in the lecture at times I was having trouble understanding the correlation between his work and what he was talking about. For example he stated that he was interested in how long buildings and cities are meant to last but I couldn't find that in his work.

Wait, 2002
wood, paint
108 x 142 x 48 inches

London Avenue, 2008 poplar, sandbags, text
96 x 156 x 36 inches


258 Main Street, 2002
wood, paint
89 x 89 x 20 inches

The Angle of a Landscape, 2007
wood, paint, C print
81 x 108 x 29 inches


Ama, 2003 wood, paint. 96 x 79 x 38 inches rear view

A lot of his work references some British catalog of utility furniture which I still don't really understand and deals with the recurring theme of a wall with attached chair or desk. Maybe it's connected to the utility furniture, but I'm not sure what the significance of this is. He seems to be doing the same project over and over assigning different meanings to it. It seems strange to me.

Waterline, 2006
17 framed C-prints
image size 11 1/4 x 16 1/2 inches; frame size 17 x 25 inches each
wood, paint
dimensions variable

He also did some photographic work entitled Water Line based on hurricane Katrina. The photographs were the same old photos we've all seen before destroyed houses, however these were much more interesting than his other work; he painted the walls of the space up as high as the water level in the photographs. It really brings you into that space and feeling of having water up to your waist. Incorporating the space in this way is something I could consider in my onw work. The only other thing I got out of Cape's work was to make sure my work is about what I am talking about, I know this came up in my critique and I don't want it to happen with my work.