Scott Alario’s work makes me very happy. As I get older and
remain single, more and more people I know are pairing off and starting
families. Some of these people I don't see all that much anymore or when I do
it generally involves activities that focus on small children, which is fine,
but kids do seem like a lot of work. I can’t help but wonder if I could be a
parent and still do a lot of what I’ve built my life around. I am sure the lack
of time to make art, or write about art, would be balanced out emotionally with
the amazingly enriching experience of the love of a child and all, but a part
of me worries that I would miss my current life. It is very comforting to see
parenting as reflected in Alario’s work, where the world seems to have been
turned into a more magical place. As if Alario is starting to see it through
the eyes of his small child. Who is shown in a homemade mask on top of a trailer
surrounded by smoke. Or standing in the darkness covered by a blanket decorated
with a glowing constellation. The pictures exhibit a magic that is in no small
part that of a skilled photographer using the camera to bend the world to his
ends, where banal things like hanging laundry and walking the dog become
transformative experiences. Not knowing Alario in the least bit, and going off
the young man pictured, it seems that he has very much taken to family life.
And is supported by an understanding wife who appears in a photograph holding a
glowing orb above her head at night on a grassy field. The orb, I want to
believe, is just a children’s toy that Alario has converted into some fantastic
art. Despite a picture of who I assume is Alario holding his daughter while he
pees on the side of a suburban home, the pictures are a rather magical celebration
of family life. Work that makes it seem that one can pull a hell of productive
life out of settling down.
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