Artist John Shen spent a year hand-gluing 28,000 plastic drinking straws together to build a giant camera. It occupies the middle of the Pawtucket loft he shares with his wife, furniture designer Hali Barthel. Portraits he took with that camera, from his “Straw Inscriptions” series, are now on view in “See and Be Seen II” at Praise Shadows Art Gallery.
Age: 33
Making a living: “It’s a full-time gig. It’s a tough racket because we’ve got to hustle. I’m really lucky that my wife has a day job as a kitchen designer.”
Originally from: Auckland, New Zealand.
Lives in: Pawtucket, R.I.
Studio: “The whole space is a camera.” Shen and Barthel share a 900-square-foot living area, with camera, bedroom, kitchen, and bath.
How he started: Shen got an undergraduate degree in finance and accounting in Auckland, but when push came to shove, “I just couldn’t be a banker. I literally Googled ‘what are the best undergraduate art programs in the world?’ RISD came up near the top of the list in every single search. It was the only school I applied to.”
He was accepted. He sold everything and moved to Providence in 2016.
What he makes: His photos ask: How much visual information do we need to feel a tug of recognition?
“If you think about each straw as a distinct pixel, it’s 28,000 pixels. Your phone has 12 million — it’s the fetishization of resolution.”
How he works: Blackout curtains are drawn. His model — often Barthel — sits behind the honeycomb block of black straws, which refracts and absorbs light. Shen inserts photographic paper into a compartment in front of it. He clicks the shutter, and a brilliant flash fills the studio. Then he develops the image. There’s no negative; each photo is a unique object.
Spending a year gluing straws was pivotal. “The super easy, cheat way to do it is to get two sheets of acrylic [plastic]. You dump all the straws in, you call it a day. But for me, what’s important is that there’s no optical element in between the subject and the photographic paper. This is very analog.”
Advice for artists: Shen and Barthel graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2020, right into the pandemic.
“For three years it was tough — there’s no one knocking at your door saying, ‘What are you making, John, are you interested in a show?’ But every month that went by, it was about moving forward,” Shen said. Now, opportunities are coming his way.
His advice? “Just keep making work.”
SEE AND BE SEEN II
At Praise Shadows Art Gallery, 313A Harvard St., Brookline, through April 7. 617-487-5427
www.praiseshadows.com/exhibitions/42-see-and-be-seen-ii-group-exhibition
Cate McQuaid can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram @cate.mcquaid.