John Houck: Aggregates

John Houck’s Aggregates (2011) attempt to create desire that resists a world consumed with highly repetitive things through a combination of physical intervention and reprinting. Using custom-written software, Houck generates every possible combination for a given grid printed as a contact sheet on photographic paper. These contact sheets are creased and re-photographed several times. This process creates layered borders that reveal the construction of each piece and adds its own layer of information, breaking the rigid system of the grid. By physically creasing and re-photographing these repetitive contact sheets, Houck reconciles the digital ground of photography and shows us the failures and ruptures in today’s algorithmic basis of photography.

New York-based John Houck received his MFA from UCLA in Los Angeles in 2007, and participated in the Whitney’s Independent Study Program in 2010. His work has been exhibited in venues across the U. S. since 2005, including the San Jose Museum of Art, and The Kitchen,  Art in General and Kate Werble Gallery in New York. His work is currently featured in the group exhibition Productive Steps at Mount Tremper Arts in Mount Tremper, NY to August 21, 2011.

All images unique folded archival pigment prints. Images courtesy the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photos: the artist.