Written by Nicole Gaudier
The Artist’s statement:
“Now you see.
Jeff Whipple, Now You See, Now You Saw, 2013, from the film still See Saw Fun, Paint, ink, digital media, video, canvas and wood
A seesaw is a lever, a board on a fulcrum that cranks up and cranks down showing what you see until it becomes what you saw. We see, and then we saw. At every instant our shared present becomes our shared past.
Now you saw.
Super 8 movies are one image captured at one sixtieth of a second followed by another one captured one eighteenth of a second later. Each image depicts the brief instant of now. Eighteen images for each second of a movie; eighteen frozen nows taking their turn. Movies are former nows line dancing one after another creating the illusion of now even if that now is now fifty years ago.
Now you see.
In this piece the man on the seesaw is anyone and everyone, riding the ups and downs of life, now being thrilled, now being frightened; the desire of see, the nostalgia of saw. The seesaw is a lever ratcheting away each moment, each now, until the nows are no more.
Now you saw.
1. You see. 2. You saw. 3. If you see again, you are still alive. The three lines are life.
The video shows images of lives, seesawing within the three lines of life.
Now you see.
A seesaw is also known as a teeter totter, which implies that the rider is teetering near an abyss with the possibility of tottering off. We are all teetering and tottering on the edge of never again seeing and sawing.
Now you saw.”
There will be artist appearances at the Stein Gallery January through April. Each Saturday, artists form the exhibition will be in the Gallery from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Others will make appearances throughout the day on Weaver Free Saturdays, and on Tuesday evenings during the exhibition.
