Corey Escoto: Sleight of Hand

Part of the city-wide 2014 Pittsburgh Biennial, this exhibition brings together several bodies of Escoto’s work, in which he uses obsolete technologies and handcrafted processes to subvert digital culture’s slick, instantaneous nature, introducing elements of chance, humor, and human error. The works include, and expand upon, Escoto’s unique multi-exposure experimental Polaroids, which are produced with a modified large-format camera and hand-cut light-blocking stencils covering the light sensitive film surface. A related group of sculptures “reverse-engineer” the Polaroids, bringing the geometric forms born therein into three dimensions. Suggesting the flatness of a photograph, these objects invert the sensibility of the images on which they are based: while Escoto’s images evoke depth, the sculptures emphasize surface, incorporating “faux” materials that mimic the texture of marble, wood, and fabric.