Peter Precourts, whom currently is a professor at the University of Maine in Augusta, is currently hanging an installation at the Danforth Gallery which chronicles his experiences in and around the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina. The exhibit is primarily on 30' x 22' panels of what the Danforth Gallery website describes as the “...most delicate and fragile of surfaces-paper “(http://www.uma.maine.edu/danforthgallery.html ). He uses this medium to show the fragile nature of the story, and the to remind the viewer of the ephemeral quality of these experiences, the tenuous nature of memory and the general felling of the event itself. Instead of critiquing the full installation I have chosen the focus on two panels from Volume 1. Panals 11, and 12.
Panel 11 describe his past experience with gambling, and show and go into his particular experience with reading people, the act of playing not against the hand, but against the person, and how one can, if given the time to learn the players motivations, produce a strategy on how to play them. The fist panel is framed at the top with a pattern of blue spheres and lines that both have an organic quality and an strong pattern and use of geometric shapes. This reinforces the notion of the organic person whose through study can be reduced to formulaic strategies, or the patterns of the mind. The only image of the a person that appears on panel is in silhouette breaking down the humanistic qualities of the person into a representation of a person. The panel then moves on to show the break down of the players motivations and leads to a grid of personality types. The panel end with a representation different literature of the subject of poker playing that we assume Peter read in his learning how to better play poker. The colors he uses are mostly blues and yellows, though in the frame there are flashes of red that draw you eye around the panel itself. The panel give some insight into Peters view of the importance on patience, and his views of self honesty and humility (as he states that he was quite good at playing poker, and that these qualities are essential in playing poker well.
Panel 12 is a full panel, clearly centered, of a large finger print. The lines that make of the finger print are wild and organic, yet the form is clear and concise, showing a mastery of control. The second panel plays off of the fist panels assertion that the organic quality of the mind can be represented by a particular set of rules unique to the
individual, and for each person, and in nature there is no stronger metaphor for this duality then the fingerprint. These panels are wonderfully paired and create an internal dialogue that is most refreshing.
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