Thoughts on Topographic Impressions
detail of Topographic Impressions, Site-specific installation of digital photographic prints, Julio Fine Arts Gallery, Loyola University Maryland, 2021
The exhibit Invisible Structures came about by Jon Malis asking a lot of questions about his own work including “What do we see and how do we see it?” The walls in an art gallery are typically overshadowed by the art that hangs in front of them. However, what happens when the gallery walls are a necessity for a piece of artwork? In Malis’ Topographic Impressions, the gallery walls are an integral part of his work. He uses various prints to highlight the imperfections of the walls from all the previous shows before it.
The walls of the gallery have been tattered and torn as many artworks have been hung off them. Malis’ goal for these pieces is for us to, “Think about how the topography of the walls allow us to interact with the space and think much more 3 dimensionally about the environment that we are in.” These Topographic Impressions highlight the parts of the gallery that normally remain unseen and bring the supports of the exhibition into focus. The walls are filled with holes, cracks, and dimples that remain unseen because no one is ever paying attention to the walls. Malis has decided to use his work to instead highlight the walls instead of hanging something over top of them. The prints fade in and out of various shades of gray. The filled in holes and bumps in the wall are raised while the cracks and dimples cause the print to sink into the wall. When looked at as a whole, Topographic Impressions allows the wall becomes its own piece of site-specific art—the ‘invisible structure’ made visible.
Topographic Impressions is such an interesting group of artworks because of what it brings to the exhibition. It is much more than just a print slapped down on a wall. While some viewers may see it as that, others may view it as something else entirely—a work suggesting things way beyond the simplicity of a wall—perhaps the surface of the moon, or the texture of an abstract painting. The shade of the prints combined with the textures of the wall create an effect that will both bring the walls into sharp focus, and make the viewer forget they are looking at a gallery wall at all. Malis has created works combining his expertise with the storied walls to create a sensational experience for the viewer.
