jfrede - los angeles

Opened in 1912 with 15 animals, most of the enclosures that still exist today were built in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration and County Relief Workers the Zoo was made in the iron bars/pacing animal style that was standard for zoo's of that era, marred with controversy from being Inadequately funded and maintained by the city, the zoo struggled for years with bad press and animal escapes. The Zoo was abandoned in 1966 when the current Los Angeles Zoo was built.

Set in a quiet corner of Griffith Park the Old Zoo is now a picnic area which is rather surreal but seems very appropriate in Los Angeles. Every time I visit the Old Zoo Picnic Area The mysterious tone of the place never seems to fade, and with every visit i seem to find new details or structures that i had missed previously.

Corners have long been considered traps for negative energy in Metaphysics and Paganism. Through out modern times people who believe in the Paranormal have considered ceiling corners of homes portholes for ghosts or spirits. Animals and babies are often observed staring intently into specific corners of rooms. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs or skepticism in such, I would venture to say that everyone has at some point in their life entered a room that didn’t feel right, call it intuition or sixth sense, some locations seem to make us uncomfortable for an unexplained reason.

Many directions can be taken from the thought of corners, one definition is “a dangerous or awkward position, especially from which escape is difficult”, while the same word means “The meeting of two streets” which is a crossroads, commonly seen as a place of options. There are many meanings of the word corner in the English Language but the juxtaposition of these two seem very powerful to me. It seems sometimes being forced into a corner where escape is difficult is in many ways a crossroad.

This photo study was done with these theories in mind, the images range from abstract to contrasting to dingy, and are meant to reflect all that happens in our personal spaces, whether literally or metaphorically speaking, corners are ever-present in our lives; good, bad or neutral.

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Title: j.frede - "Fire & Water" Series
Medium: Photographs; 6 - 24" x 36" giclée prints

Exhibition Details :
Playhouse Collective
Long Beach, CA

About The Images: "These photographs are groupings of smoke and rain clouds that challange our perspective of what is peaceful and what is menacing. Visually the smoke images appear to be billowing clouds which we normally associate with serenity. The rain clouds, however are dark and brooding and bring a sense of apprehension. The dark rain cloud is actaully the giver of life whilst the smoke, being a biproduct of fire, is the destroyer of life in this instance. "


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