in bed with lucy and dolly No.3-18, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 60 x 150 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.3,, 2000, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.3-19, 2001, color photograms on diasec, alu. 60 x 150 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.19, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.23, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.35, 2003, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.17, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.31, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.22, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.15, 2001, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

in bed with lucy and dolly No.2, 2000, color photogram on diasec, alu. 100 x 130 cm

 

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in bed with lucy and dolly, act one, 2001, scene from video-play.

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In bed with Lucy and Dolly - Photograms

Mapping the temporal balance between water and air in the form of unique bubbles - which emerge as a result of dynamic systems that do not follow linear and hierarchal patterns of organizational behavior - Fried charts the fundamental economy of networks in nature. In varying chromatic tones, Fried depicts strictly non-biological membranes that evoke a strong resemblance to primordial living cells or biotech test-tube creations, and reminds us of just how fragile, yet adoptive the architecture of life is.

Fried creates large gaseous vesicles in a totally darkened room using infrared goggles. At the decisive moment before they fall, he photograms them onto grainless color sheet-film by triggering a colored point-light source above. He captures the shadows of these fleeting objects to make an image on a photosensitive support using only light and the light sensitive material. No camera or lens is used. What we see in his enlarged C-prints are the latent shadows and spectral aberrations of these transparent forms caused by the membrane’s curved surface. The object itself becomes the lens, subtly bending the light and altering its own image.

The title refers to Lucy (the early hominid “Mother”), to us (the “Myth”), and to Dolly-the-Sheep (what Fried ironically calls the “Missing Link”) in a dialogue that seeks orientation in a world in which man has moved from adapting to and controlling their environment, to designing life itself to fit it’s environment. With this work, Fried involves our sense of orientation in a world that has taken a biomorphic journey from the Cambrian Sea to the Sea of Science and it’s playpens of genetic engineering.

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C.C.: Would you please explain your reference in the title of the photographic works to Dolly, the first cloned sheep?

D.F.: With her arrival (Dolly), a media star was born. Suddenly everyone knew a barrier was shattered between mankind's practice of altering his environment, and mankind's attempts at re-inventing himself. Man has always looked for what separates himself from other species. For me, Dolly became the missing link, fulfilling man's need to be supreme. On the other hand, Lucy, an ancient hominid, is a woman of more uncertain origin. Although we can clearly interpret her physiological nature, the question is still posed, "How intelligent was she really?" Well, at least clever enough to eat, sleep and reproduce biologically, which is more than I can say for our predecessors. So we find ourselves in bed with our own past and future, trying to orientate ourselves to this "brave new world."

Christopher Chambers is an artist, critic, and curator based in New York City.

see "interview" page for full text - English / German >>

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