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Ominous Prophecy
Ominous Prophecy
Ominous Prophecy

Ominous Prophecy

Artist (American)
Date1989
MediumDye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid)
Dimensions(a) Left Panel: 60 × 48 × 1 in. (152.4 × 121.9 × 2.5 cm)
(b) Center Panel: 60 × 32 × 1 in. (152.4 × 81.3 × 2.5 cm)
(c) Right Panel: 60 × 48 × 1 in. (152.4 × 121.9 × 2.5 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Kathleen Campbell, 2018
Object number2018.19a-c
DescriptionPolaroid prints mounted to backing to create three panels.
(a). Panel one (left) shows figure at center standing in front of painted backdrop with black bird with spread wings, figure is holding sword pointing downward from waist.
(b). Panel two (middle) shows figure of woman at center against painted backdrop with the image of an explosion. She wears a black headdress with black ribbons, a red cloak and has lace around her hands.
(c). Panel three (right) shows a figure against a painted backdrop similar to Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam"; she is holding an apple in her left hand and her right arm and hand are extended toward the center panel.



Text Entries
In her triptych, (three panels that create one work of art), "Ominous Prophecy", Campbell uses figures from Christianity and art, (Archangel Michael, Madonna, Eve), to warn of the future that awaits us if we fail to control our destructive human impulses.

In a statement on her website in November 2016, the artist writes about this triptych:

In this work, I use the traditional spiritual iconography of Western civilization as a metaphor for its potential destruction.  The images create a triptych. The first piece contains a copy of a painting by Piero della Francesca entitled, "The Battle of Constantine."  An ominous black bird is drawn on a waving flag.  The figure, holding a sword, is meant to resemble the Archangel Michael from Van Eyck’s “The Last Judgement.”  In the middle photograph, the Madonna wears a black headdress instead of the traditional blue—and holds black ribbons which stream over her belly.  She looks at the viewer in alarm.  Things are exploding violently around her.  Blake’s God figure from “The Prophecy of Europe” is in the upper right corner.  The third shows Eve holding the apple.  The gesture of her right hand echoes that of the snake from Michelangelo’s “The Fall of Man.”  This figure is wrapped around a tree, anxiously pointing at the center panel.  Here, figures from Western art history warn us of the future that awaits us if we fail to control our destructive impulse.

The models for this triptych include Laurel Wallace (artist and archeologist, trained at UNM); Jeanean Bodwell (Patrick Nagatani’s ex-wife) as Madonna; and Carla Williams (artist and art historian, trained at UNM)

Unique prints, no edition.  The artist says she made a few related prints that survive as separate images, but this is the only completed work.

The photographs were made in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

In a conversation in Santa Fe with curator Katherine Ware in December 2016, Campbell talked further about this piece.  She said she was teaching at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina but returned to Albuquerque for the opportunity to work with the large-format Polaroid camera.  Her previous work was hand-colored photography and as color film is “more literal,” she is looking for a way to create a more blurry image that would be “more mythological or allegorical.”  To achieve that, she smeared Vaseline on glass and placed it between camera and model as well as having the models sway slightly to create a less focused image.  She said that in the central panel, the sun is exploding and the Madonna is alarmed and holding black ribbons because we are “causing our own downfall.”  The figures in the side panels are reacting to her, especially Eve, who reaches toward the Madonna.  Campbell said that because she was at Penland, she dyed fabric to match her painted backdrop…others are painted backdrops.


This set of images was taken in 1989, when Polaroid’s large-format 20 × 24-inch instant camera traveled to Albuquerque to be used by local artists. Here, Campbell poses her subjects based on painted compositions by Piero della Francesca, Jan van Eyck, and Michelangelo. The scale, media, and composite composition were, for the time, a challenge to the traditional restrictions placed on subject matter and presentation format for photography.

 

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