In Conversation with .. Aaron Moore
(Originally Published on The Pendulum Project)
Aaron and I sit in the sun-filled studio where his first solo show is being set up. On the walls surrounding us hangs work largely depicting the landscapes and rock formations of Northern Ireland where he was born. As we talk I look from the walls and back at him and cannot help but notice that the colour palette of his work reflected in his own physical presence. The soft blue skies and earth tones present throughout the exhibition extend off the walls and find resonance in his dishevelled dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. All in all, the scene is really quite striking.
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“I went into photography knowing that I wasn’t going to take anything that could be presented in a fashion magazine. That’s not what my work looks like and that’s not what I do.” Despite a gentle and mildly selfdeprecating disposition, Aaron Moore continues to surprises me with the decided resoluteness of his answers. After being born in raised in Northern Ireland his family relocated to Welland (“It was kind of like, ‘Oh this place seems nice and Ireland is kind of grim at the moment, so let’s go.”), a small town in Southern Ontario, where he completed high school before returning back to Ireland for a diploma in technical photography. It was during this period of transitions that he began developing his perspective on the photographic image. “I had just been playing with images through Photoshop — mostly selfportraits because I was the only person I had access to as a subject — but it was a lot of that; playing with different ways to edit and distort images. So I just went into the diploma knowing that image manipulation and dissecting what a photograph is and how it looks was my main goal.” After the diploma in 2014 he moved again but this time to Toronto to begin university at OCAD for Photography.
“SO I JUST WENT INTO THE DIPLOMA KNOWING THAT IMAGE MANIPULATION AND DISSECTING WHAT A PHOTOGRAPH IS AND HOW IT LOOKS WAS MY MAIN GOAL.”
First year came and went as first years generally do, “I just felt quite bored because I had already learned the technical skills in Ireland so because I had to take all these technical classes I was just unable to experiment,” but as second year came around Moore found his inspiration sparked by abstract painting courses. “I find that a lot of my works are influenced by abstract impressionism.” Later on he lists artists in and around that movement — Cy Twombly, Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko — as major points of reference. This is an interesting comparison because Moore’s artistic process revolves around photography. I hesitate to use the title ‘Photographer’ because his process could be likened more to that of a painter; manipulating the pixels of a photograph like one does to paint on palette. “To me it’s really just a bunch of materials that have somehow been deemed photographic and I don’t really know how valid that is, and how separate that medium is from painting and drawing.” With this perspective Moore’s work possesses clearer parallels to the era of abstract expressionist painters notable for pushing the boundaries of the medium itself.
“TO ME IT’S REALLY JUST A BUNCH OF MATERIALS THAT HAVE SOMEHOW BEEN DEEMED PHOTOGRAPHIC.”
Upon entry to the exhibition of his work, The Cusp & The Middle, the viewer is first introduced to Moore through his series of Circle Pieces. The eight 24 x 24” prints are in themselves circular subsections dissected from photographs of places Moore’s Grandmother would take him in Ireland and are framed by the inverse of the same image.
The negative images blends with the positive in a way that mutually supports and emphasizes their differences as the natural textures of the landscapes transgress the boundaries between the monochromatic frame it’s the coloured centre. The visual disorientation experienced when following with your eye the eroded paths of ravines and roads beyond the coloured image into its negative counterpart could be seen as representative of the confusing negotiation within Moore’s own cultural identity, a metaphor for the literal, cultural and psychological displacement experienced in his multiple moves to and from Ireland. Moore consciously presents the highly manipulated photographic palimpsests as just as much as a commentary on the physical limitations of the medium as they are an accessible segway into contemplating the thresholds of ethnicity and identity. “The only thing I can really talk about explicitly in my work is a dissection of photography as a medium and I use that to undercover talk about my life and my identity and stuff around that. By looking at what images can do and what the limitations of this photograph is that can be applied to my life and what makes up my identity.”
“THE ONLY THING I CAN REALLY TALK ABOUT EXPLICITLY IN MY WORK IS A DISSECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY AS A MEDIUM AND I USE THAT TO UNDERCOVER TALK ABOUT MY LIFE AND MY IDENTITY.”
Continuing clockwise around the gallery Moore’s work continues to present various commentaries on the geographic and political structures that have created Ireland. This subject matter serves as the foreground to the more his own implicit reconciliation with his own identity. On the opposite wall of the Circle Pieces is Things, When Put Together, a series of 16 duotone colour palettes. While collection of pairings creates a soothing colour palette that compliments the earthtones of the Circle Series, the true subject depicted reveals a deeper context. “What they are is enlarged pixels from political image archives from around the time of ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland,” Aaron explains, “So that is all about simplification of identity. Because Northern Ireland’s culture is so tied up in political conflict, oppression and ideas of marginalization, that becomes an identity in itself. Especially in Northern Ireland these two opposing sides still exist and their identities are very much tied to their hatred of the other identity. So it’s simplifying that conflict down to these colours.” Not your typical visual representation of opposing forces, this assortment of offwhites and varying shades of brown, blue and purple also function as a more truthful visualization of the harsh divides fabricated between people. And while standing at a distance the various tones start to muddle together, we are all more similar than we think.
