Photo: © Kent Rogowski
Kent Rogowski is an artist and photographer whose works are often provocative and whimsical manipulations of objects and images that surround us in our daily lives. From teddy bears and snow globes to jigsaw puzzles and self-help books, Rogowski uses and alters mass-produced consumer products as a vehicle for self-expression. By transforming the generic into something personal, he questions what these products communicate, and also what role they play in our culture.
Kent Rogowski: Love = Love, now on view at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, through the end of October 2015, presents works from a series of collages made from more than 60 store-bought puzzles. Although the puzzle pieces are unique and can only fit into one place within a given puzzle, they are sometimes interchangeable within a brand.
© Kent Rogwoski
For Love = Love, Rogowski selected puzzles that were cut using the same die, but depicting totally unrelated images. By using only the flowers and the skies from each puzzle, Rogowski created entirely new compositions by recombining the pieces the puzzles together. These spectacular, fantastical, and surreal landscapes sit in direct contrast to the banal and bucolic beauty of the original puzzles’ imagery.
Rogowski’s work transforms the familiar into the foreign, like a kind of visual alchemy. His process of transforming these fairly disposable (yet very sentimental) objects from commercial products to art has a fascinating effect. We are at once drawn to what we know, yet must pause to take in the new ideas and meanings Rogowski brings to his art.
© Kent Rogwoski
As he observes, “I think the subjects have always found me. I see something and it will suddenly click. I usually won’t know exactly what I want to make at that moment, but I will start thinking about what that element represents and communicates. I have always been drawn to elements in pop culture. Not because they are of direct interest to me, but because everyone already has an established relationship or opinion about them. So I can easily draw upon or challenge that language to inform the meaning of the work.
“With Love=Love, I think there is some surprise that all the puzzles fit together, but then another level of taking the bland imagery and creating something with an enormous amount of energy and movement. It was challenging to come up with a way of collaging the images together that worked. I think I was surprised at how certain parts of images could fit together and would make something visually coherent. I was thinking about two things coming together and creating something new and unique. Kind of like a relationship, where two people connect and form a unique bond. I thought about puzzle pieces and how you think they are unique and assumed that this probably wasn’t actually true.
© Kent Rogwoski
“Once I did some tests and figured out that you could put multiple puzzles together, I had to figure out how to make that visually interesting and compelling. The experience of putting them together was very tedious. Keeping track of all of the puzzle pieces was a nightmare! The whole process seemed kind of mathematical. I was always counting pieces and constrained. So for the title I wanted to combine that experience with the original idea of two people coming together to create something new.
“I always liked how the original puzzles looked and that there was a direct connection to the object with the viewer. They feel more accessible and seeing the actual cuts of the pieces makes them a little more delicate. I think seeing the original puzzles also helps you better understand the process behind making them. You realize that these are real things and all the pieces were taken from existing products.
© Kent Rogwoski
“The thing that surprised me most happened over and over. I originally thought I would only have enough puzzles to make two final pieces. After I finished each image, I would look at what I had left and try to make another one. I thought each one would be the last, but wound up making fourteen works. It became an interesting challenge to try to create more images with less pieces available. I got much more creative creating the images because of it. Some of my favorite images were created near the end of the project.”
Kent Rogowski: Love = Love is now on view at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, through the end of October 2015.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
