John Newlander: 100 Famous Views of the OC, a Participatory Photo-Documentary Project
Artist Reception: August 2nd from 6-9

John Newlander is a visual artist who lives in Laguna Beach, California. Influenced by a mode of artistic practice referred to as relational aesthetics, Newlander uses his art to broaden his understanding of and his relationship to the "place" that he calls home—Orange County, California. Refusing to take a traditional egocentric or self-important approach to determining the imagery that result from his investigations, Newlander solicits the input of residents of his community to provide him with their most visually special places. Through this process of externalization, Newlander's understanding of his community becomes enriched beyond that which he could achieve by simply heading out with his camera and shooting those things that strike "him" as special.

In 1856, the Japanese artist Hiroshige did a famous series of woodcut prints titled: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Edo was to become Tokyo. Newlander’s project references this important body of work in terms of a shared mode of recognition of the relationship between place and identity. This project, which is called One Hundred Famous Views of the OC, differs from that of Hiroshige in that volunteers chose all of the locations. Responding to an open call that Newlander placed on the Orange County Craigslist, each participant offered his or her one place within the OC worthy of being called "famous."

Through the process of collaboration, Newlander opens himself up to a fresh and multi-layered perspective of his community. In Relational Aesthetics, Nicolas Bourriaud states that "what [the artist] ... produces, first and foremost, is relations between people and the world, by way of aesthetic objects." Newlander participates with those people who live in "his" world to create aesthetic experiences that broaden not only the relations between them and their community, but also enrich the community relatedness of the viewers of his art.

Don's Miss a rare opportunity to see this "Work in Progress"!