ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ben Freeman creates large-scale multimedia constructions utilizing emotionally charged
personal objects, such as antique photographs, historical text, diaries, letters and journals.
These elements are layered and structured to form a context that transcends time and feeds the
human lust for immortality. The multi-media works incorporate a process of photomontage and
collage, with large transparent photographs projected and developed directly onto the surface of
the collaged underlayers. The lead base of the artwork often has cryptic inscriptions,
emphasizing the theme as well as the power of human emotion, and asking questions which,
more often than not, require an answer from the viewer rather than the artist.
The process Freeman uses in the execution of this work has grown out of many years of
experimenting with various techniques in a never-ending search to better render the feelings he
seeks to express. The final result is achieved through photomontage, collage and then
projection and development of photographs directly onto the surface of the canvas. The work
begins with collaging the basic elements (archival objects such as love letters or antique
photographs found mainly through forays in the marchés aux puces in Paris, handwritten text on
documents and printed text). Examples of photographs that Freeman uses in his work include
film starlets or turn of the century actresses, old class photographs, snapshots from family
albums or portraits. These pieces are glued to canvas on a plywood backing using a polymer
medium.
The most prominent metaphor for time and memory in Freeman’s work is the use of layering,
combining surfaces of varying thickness to suggest distance and clarity of what is recollected.
Several layers of materials are collaged to add a sense of depth and emotional complexity.
Handwritten text can be superimposed over them, and once complete the result is sealed with
an oil-based resin. The surface of the canvas is then treated with a photo-emulsion, which in
essence turns the entire canvas in a light sensitive surface. A chosen negative is then projected
onto the surface of the piece and developed under darkroom conditions with photographic
chemicals. Monumental images are thus combined with the smaller and more detailed images
and text. The resulting image can then be modified with oil colors. A lead base is most often
attached, sometimes with a sculptural dimension added by cutting through the plywood backing
to create alcoves and then by manipulating the lead itself. Bolts, molding, lace, dried flowers,
Japanese papers or other textural materials may be applied to the image to enhance the
composition. The thickness varies from the ephemeral effects of lace and gauze to the thickness
of cardboard or lead. The resulting artwork is sealed by the addition of an epoxy resin coat,
which unifies and encapsulates it.
As Peter Hay Halpert comments in an essay on Ben Freeman, “…his work is an amalgam of
techniques, initiated by collaging layers of different elements, such as 19th century photographs
or documents, and then overlaying them with projected imagery. As with many contemporary
artists, Freeman's art operates on multiple levels. On the one, process is integral to the art.
Thus, Freeman’s complex methodology is an essential ingredient in creating an art object. But
on another level, it is also clearly a process for grappling with important ideas and emotions.”
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The past is a mess, a dim dense tangle of people, places, things, points of view, chronologies, attitudes, delusions, lies and emotions…the past is a product of elusive, mutable , and insubstantial memory …sometimes re-constructible , always irretrievable …Ben Freeman helps us to make some sense of what is past, but he is far less interested in the facts than in the feelings…
Facts do appear, in fact, the entirety of Freeman’s imagery is formed from actual artifacts, objects that have slipped from the past into the present, and include letters, postcards, diaries, photographs and assorted objects…all of these real things were once deeply personal….re-contextualized, they are now achingly anonymous, cut from their moorings and adrift in time…with these captured bits of what historians deem “ephemera”, Freeman builds an architecture of nostalgia (memory + emotion)….rectangular objects are laid like bricks upon a foundation of lead….and upon these building blocks, projected upon this wall of the past, looms the central image of a face…
And what a face- a colossal face , whose scale is cinematic, made to seem even larger by its juxtaposition to the background photos (which it dwarfs), and to us the viewer, who must gaze up into its eyes…these personages are bigger than life, much bigger, and they seem preternaturally alive with their chiseled features set off by raking light , giant jewelry, radiant irises, and brightly painted lips…but they also seem embalmed, not only with their fashionable attire from another era, but also under their makeup….at this size, one might expect to see every pore….instead, we see every flake of foundation, every stroke of eyeliner…death masks come to life…
These are faces of celebrity…they are not people, but constructions-as fully cobbled together as works of art…who they were is lost to time…who they are, and how they are remembered, and how we feel about they is timeless…Freeman asks us to consider the intertwining mechanisms of image, fame, desire and power-not only visually, but also emotionally…the texts stamped into the lead panels of each artwork are crucial to Freeman’s revelation of the emotional deceits that underpin glamour…they speak of narcissism (“she never passed a mirror without saying hello”) , megalomania (“the narcotic effect of her beauty gave her complete control”) , and manipulation (“seducing the system was her talent”)…Freeman also reminds us that this deliberate use of beauty to achieve power is eternal…his Hollywood Casanovas and Jezebels, clearly from the 20 th century, lurch out from a background of 19 th century figures into the space and time of the 21 st century…their power remains intact and their allure endures….indeed, they make the simpleton celebrities of our own time look like amateurs…
Ben Freeman”s work over the last two decades has been focused on the emotional exigencies of history, especially how all things pass save for the depth and texture of human feeling, especially love…Here in his Temptation Series, he turns his attention to the dark underbelly of love , packaged for consumption, again and again and again…-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nick Capasso
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park
Catalogue essay for 2006 exhibition TEMPTATION at WESTWOOD GALLERY, New York City