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Image of George Hale Meets Ray Man High Above Andromeda

Jim Pomeroy

American
(1945–1992)

George Hale Meets Ray Man High Above Andromeda
1975

Galvanized sheet metal and photographs
40.25 x 47.875 x 1.625 in. (102.235 x 121.603 x 4.128 cm)
Gift of Jim Melchert with additional support from the Kathryn C. Wanlass Foundation and George Wanlass
2016.1

Jim Pomeroy began his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, with the intention of pursuing a career in sculpture. Later he became curious about other modes of art making, particularly photography and performance art. What he did in those areas owes as much to his wit as to his fascination with tools. Wherever he traveled, he made a point of visiting neighborhood hardware stores, which he considered superior to art supply stores for finding materials. In one popular work a stepladder functions as a bookcase; in a performance he placed a row of wrenches on his outstretched left arm and played them like a xylophone.

There was a conceptual bent to his photo work as well. For George Hale Meets Ray Man High above Andromeda he used an enlarger, but instead of printing from a negative he projected a sheet of window screen, producing many variations by manipulating the screen. Afterward he trimmed the thirty-some prints he had made and glued them to a panel. Their diagonal mounting sets them in motion and suggests fields of energy. Referencing this use of a metal screen, Pomeroy framed the panel in galvanized sheet metal.

The title provides a key to the work. George Hale was an astronomer who invented the spectroheliograph, a means of capturing images of the sun at specific wavelengths of light. The mention of artist Man Ray alludes to the photograms he made by laying objects directly on the photo paper and exposing them to light. Here Pomeroy playfully acknowledges these two figures from photographic history.

Jim Melchert

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gray, metal, photographs

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