Disheveled architecture will be the focus of Bunk Spot Gallery's Total Facade, a joint show put on by Cincinnati natives Jim Swill and Ben Brown (the latter being a curator at the gallery and local art collective Bunk News).
A mix of photographs and collages will be on display — the imagery of weathered, fading, crumbling architecture threaded throughout. The show's title points to its concept: Total referencing "totaled," or damaged beyond repair, and "facade" meaning a building's principal front, which, in this case, conceals a less than pleasant reality. Swill told me via email that the depiction of damaged buildings acts "as a narrative to discuss time and mortality."
In an email interview, Brown explains that his collages were created between 2018-'19, though the source images they're comprised of were pulled from street photography taken in previous years. The bulk of Swill's images were taken circa 2015 in the Southwest while he was living in Los Angeles. Still, good ol' Midwestern Ohio acts as the backdrop for several to-be-featured photographs.
Total Facade opens at Bunk Spot (544 E. 12th St., Pendleton) Nov. 29 from 7-11 p.m. Attendees can catch a screening of Swill's short film Burner Phone at 9 p.m. Free black-and-white posters will be up for grabs — first come first served — and if you feel like sippin' while you look it's BYOB. The gallery will be available for by-appointment private viewings after the opening for the first two weeks of December. (Interested? Shoot an email or Instagram DM to [email protected] or via @bunk_news.)
Swill and Brown will also be tabling works at the Cincinnati Art Book Fair Dec. 14-15 at Covington's The Carnegie. Come New Year's Eve, Bunk News will also be taking over The Mockbee for an art installation.
Ahead of the opening, CityBeat caught up with Brown and Swill via email to chat about Total Facade.
CityBeat: In the context of Total Facade, how do you (Jim and Ben) see your styles/pieces working together?
Jim Swill: We’ve both always taken very similar photos. It kind of stems from street photography, but both of us focus on composition rather than from a photojournalistic standpoint. You spend enough time intentionally wandering, looking for it, and things just begin to line up.
Ben Brown: Swill and I have shared a common visual interest in the decay and urban grittiness that can be found in wandering through post-industrial scenery. The power of having a constant camera on hand via cell phone allows a fleeting moment to be captured or a scene to be instantaneously rendered with no premeditation.
CB: Can you talk about how the idea for the show first formed?
BB: I had been working on this series over the past year and Swill was the immediate first reaction to reach out to for a perfect aesthetic fit. He had recently moved back to Cincinnati and we’ve had numerous collaborations over the past 10+ years.
CB: The name itself references the idea of being “totaled” — what attracts you to the imagery of disheveled architecture and what do you think this buildings-in-decay represent?
BB: Personally, the unplanned forces at work to make these compositions are the most compelling aspect. These buildings have taken the brunt of the wear and tear of time, nature and human interaction to become wholly original scenes. A rusted door, buffed graffiti, broken windows and encroaching vines can transform a building facade into a backdrop that has a new visual life while simultaneously speaking to its own functional decay.
JS: For me, all of the pieces are just related to time and debt, things washing away and transforming rather than it’s decay. I’m drawn to the dreamy aspect of these types of subjects, getting lost over the years and left behind. A good amount of the work in the show strays from architecture and focuses on unhinged subjects. A military store in the desert with banners for doomsday sales, the remains of a completely burned and melted car, thrown out Christmas trees and cheap Vegas motels are scenes in the show that have a similar feeling.
CB: The ‘facade’ half of the show’s title references a building’s exterior. Often parts of a building maintain a semblance of what they were while the truth is harsher. What do you feel this juxtaposition represents? If anything?
BB: Swill’s work, in particular, transcends the literal building facades we are showcasing to a deeper sociological lens (often via text) of how we are navigating a society built on certain promises and expectations that have proven hollow or irrelevant but still guide our shared experience.
CB: Can you expand on what to expect from the film screening?
JS: Yes, it’s actually my short film titled Burner Phone. It’s a narrated montage where I’m reading this piece of poetry over collected shots in California. It’s also scored and sound-designed using that environment such as ice cream trucks, fireworks, and traffic jams. The film centers around a summer in LA where so many things were catching fire in a heatwave — forest fires to mansions and factories — to the point where smoke was blocking the sun for days. You can read more about Burner Phone at Felt Zine. Many shots in the film are actually the same subjects in my photos as well, so it was the perfect accompaniment.
CB: Abandoned buildings/spaces often — to me, at least — speak to the decay of capitalism itself. Coincidence that the show opens on Black Friday? (Ha!)
JS: The irony is not lost on us, but the date just happened to line up with the final Friday of the month.
