ORANGE COUNTY

An important contribution of Post-Modernism to photography has been the breakdown of the medium’s traditional role as a simple documentor of reality. Artists have now introduced the idea of the simulacrum, an artificial and vague semblance that has more to do with the fantasy of theater than with creating a true copy of nature. Painter Andree Tracey and photographer Patrick Nagatani certainly fall into this category, referring to themselves as “painting/photography/installation/performing artists.”

Like Cindy Sherman and James Casebere, Tracey and Nagatani create artificial scenarios, often including themselves, and then photograph the scene as an ambiguous merger of the real and the artificial. Photographs and original tableaux are occasionally presented side by side so that the artists can accentuate their artifice. A typical example is “Blue Room,” featuring a blue-hued, painted backdrop by Tracey. A beach scene is depicted through a hotel window during a hurricane. Inside, furniture flies across the room, the TV belches static and a suitcase full of clothes spills open throwing its contents into the air. The suitcase and many of the objects are real, suspended by fishing lines in front of the painted background to create an actual three-dimensionality. Tracey then walks into the installation just as the final Polaroid is taken, creating a fuzzy presence that reinforces the kinetic feeling of the mise en scene.

The final shot is ultimately more important than the mere installation because it blurs the edges between the painted image, the suspended real objects and Tracey herself. Although certain clues remain (we can see the fishing line, and pick out some of the more crudely painted areas), it is sometimes impossible to distinguish between reality and artifice, thus undercutting the integrity of the photograph as objective representation. Tracey and Nagatani set themselves up as visual shamans, playing with perspective, space and narrative structure while fooling and educating their audience at the same time. What could be more satisfying? (Susan Spiritus Gallery, 522 Old Newport Blvd., Newport Beach, to Oct. 12.)