Ian Sullivan

Ian Sullivan is an artist who works across a variety of media.  His series, Come Back to Me,  was created over a period of 13 years and uncovers the hidden worlds and ephemeral domestic spaces that can be found in what, at first glance, appears to be a generic hotel room.   Working as a traveling art courier, Ian spent many a night in such rooms when he started to re-arrange the elements in each - standing mattresses on end, adjusting pillows and lighting - to create enigmatic spaces that he photographed using tungsten slide film. The effect is one that is both familiar and mysterious: one recognizes all the elements in the photograph, the mattresses, pillows, and tables. Yet, once rearranged, re-lit and photographed, they become something else entirely. The slides play with the scale of these familiar objects and projected on the wall many of them feel like giant and surreal architectural landscapes.

While showing work that responds so directly to ideas of space and domesticity wasn't a requirement for our gallery, it was really the perfect opening show.  While most of this series is in slide form, Ian chose one large plexiglass print to hang for the duration of the exhibit. For the opening and gallery talk, he set up an installation of slides in various areas of our apartment:  One projected onto the venetian blinds in the bathroom, another down the hallway onto a closed door.  The slide projectors added an anachronistic element to the whole, with their whirring motors and familiar smells.

Exhibition

Opening & Art Talk - Feb 25, 2014

Event Summary

Tuesday evening marked the first opening of the Society for Domestic Museology featuring the work of Ian Sullivan.  Ian is the creative genius behind the exhibition design at the Bard Graduate Center and is also an artist in his own right who works across a wide variety of media.  Mindful of the "domestic" context of our gallery, Ian chose to show a series of work completed over a number of years that plays with ideas of space and home.    >> Read More