Thoughts about BANG-BANG CONTROL by Kathleen Perniciaro:

It starts with discovering vintage knick-knacks, journals and jeans at an estate sale. 

For BANG-BANG CONTROL, Otis Weekly (Otis) catalogs vintage items by photographing them in his studio. The imperfections of the thrifted finds pop in contrast with the clean backdrop. After he develops his film, Otis prints the film scans directly onto chosen pages of a found notebook. Otis is not interested in the mathematical theories studied in the notebook. Instead, he uses the hand drawn graphs as shapes to emphasize the aesthetics of the collectibles he photographs. The vintage items are recontextualized to help Otis tell a personal story. Through his camera's shutter and collage, Otis sets parameters and turns details on and off; he is a bang-bang controller. 

The scale at which the scans are printed in BANG-BANG CONTROL displays the materiality intimately. The paper fibers and ink become painterly. The Mattel stamp on a vintage Barbie and the dent in a gas can become momentous. The large framed works are reminiscent of still life paintings and hint at meaning beyond what’s displayed. Paired with a gallery wall of lifestyle photographs showing Otis’s day to day, BANG-BANG CONTROL feels like reading someone else’s love letter.

BANG-BANG CONTROL is about memory. Otis is meticulous about each step of his process, but the analog technology used does not allow him complete control over the outcome. Like a faded memory, or rummaging through an estate sale, the works piece together disparate imagery creating a lingering feeling that one doesn’t know the whole story however familiar it feels.

Visit Otis Weekly’s Website HERE