Northern Arizona University Art Museum
Flagstaff, AZ
The NAU Art Museum's exhibition of photographs by Ben Montague comprises three distinct series -- Constructs, Insects, and Militainment. The first, Constructs, recombines cast-off industrial materials into anthropomorphic, steam-punk assemblages far removed from our high-tech present. Insects employs shifts in scale to create terrifying images of creatures trapped in amber. Deployed in grids, they suggest scientific taxonomies, but hung in different clusters, they evoke swarms. This tension between discipline and chaos applies, as well, to the battle images of Militainment, in which order collapses into a photomachy, a battle between light and darkness. Together, the three series construct a post-apocalyptic world of objects and actors that are almost, but not quite, identifiable.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website
Northern Arizona University Art Museum
Flagstaff, AZ