In photographer Robert Polidori’s inaugural show at the Paul Kasmin Gallery – entitled 'Ecophilia / Chronostasis' – gritty, urban photographs completely envelop the viewer, blocking the surrounding trendy Chelsea neighborhood. Polidori uses ‘dendritic’ to describe the industrial sprawl captured in this series – a term that more commonly refers to the branching extensions of a biological structure such as a cell or a tree.
This is the first time Polidori’s 2007 ‘dendritic’ series is being shown in the United States. In it, the photographer, known for capturing post-disaster scenes in Chernobyl, New Orleans and Havana, turns his lens on Amman, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro.
‘These "auto constructed" cities are constructed (as the term implies) by the inhabitants themselves,’ Polidori says. ‘I began the series in 1996 when I chanced upon the auto-constructed settlements in Jabal al Qal'a [Amman Citadel]. This whole settlement was constructed within three years by Palestinians expulsed from Kuwait in 1991 and I was amazed by the vast and rapid expansion of this new "organic" urban growth.’
Three enormous photographs of India dominate the space, especially his 12m work, 60 Feet Road which captures an eponymous street in Mumbai. The image is a compilation of 22 separate photographs stitched into one. ‘I wanted the piece to be large enough for the viewer to see the myriad details inherent in the image and wide enough to force the viewer to walk by it from end to end as I had to do when I initially photographed it,’ Polidori explains.
Also on view is the photographer’s 2010 Hotel Petra, a set of images taken of a formerly grand hotel that was nearly destroyed and abandoned in Beirut during the 1980s civil war. Unlike his expansive city photographs, Hotel Petra focuses on specific details of flaked paint and mottled walls, offering up a more poetic perspective of architectural decline. Combined, the two series continue Polidori’s exploration of the boundaries between beauty and decay, order and disorder, and the architectural record that encapsulates all of these conditions.
Polidori uses ‘dendritic’ to describe the industrial sprawl captured in his series – a term that more commonly refers to the branching extensions of a biological structure such as a cell or a tree. Pictured: Amrut Nagar #3
This is the first time Polidori’s 2007 ‘dendritic’ series is being shown in the United States. Pictured: Amrut Nagar #3
Also on view is the photographer’s 2010 Hotel Petra, a set of images taken of a formerly grand hotel that was nearly destroyed and abandoned in Beirut during the 1980s civil war. Pictured left: Hotel Petra #6. Right: Hotel Petra #8
INFORMATION
’Ecophilia / Chronostasis’ is on view until 15 October. For more information, visit the Paul Kasmin Gallery website
Photography courtesy the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery
ADDRESS
Paul Kasmin Gallery
293 10th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
-
2025 getaways: where Wallpaper* editors will be travelling to this yearFrom the Japanese art islands of Naoshima and Teshima to the Malaysian tropical paradise of Langkawi, here’s where Wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025
-
These eight on-the-rise fashion designers are set to define 2025Wallpaper* looks ahead to a new vanguard of designers set to shift the fashion needle in 2025, each chosen for the way they are not just shaping how to dress, but how to be
-
Year in review: top 10 culture fixes of 2024, as chosen by art & culture editor Hannah SilverIt's been a bumper year on the Wallpaper* culture desk – here are some of the highlights, as reported in 10 culture stories, from body horror to the Blitz club revisited
-
Inside Luna Luna: the amusement park designed by artists lands in New York‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ – featuring rides by Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Haring, and Dalí – has opened at The Shed
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
