Bischoff Soren Black, a three-person show at Oakland’s Johansson Projects, brings together photographs by Brice Bischoff and Tabitha Soren with multimedia pieces by Ellen Black in a tasteful group installation. All three artists use various natural landscapes as starting points in their work, but the best pieces in the show examine those settings as sites for imaginative fabrications. In Bischoff and Black’s works especially, the many artistic decisions evident in their making — some transparent, others obscure — give the pieces their allure.
Bischoff’s photographs, staged in Los Angeles’ Bronson Caves, are the most dramatic works in the show. Initially excavated to provide the building material for the city’s roads, the caves were frequently featured in films, mostly low-budget science fiction and western flicks. The fascinating real-life history of the Bronson Caves could overshadow an attempt to make work on location, but Bischoff’s large-scale and lustrous prints hold their own.
Brice Bischoff, “Bronson Caves I”
Bischoff has used the caves as a backdrop to create long-exposure photographs with large sheets of colored paper as props. Actions made with the paper are recorded as hazy evidence; the photographs show caves covered in colored fog, shimmering movement, and strange auras. In Bronson Caves I, the dark opening of a cave appears as if tinted by stage lights. Bronson Caves X shows a tunnel through the rocks, a swirling arc of colored paper neatly echoing the opening of the cave at the other end. The works reference both Hollywood fictions and, similarly, the ease with which the ephemeral can be made substantial.
Tabitha Soren, “Panic Beach”