David Lynch, Untitled (Lodz), 2000

David Lynch: The Factory Photographs

September 17 – December 31, 2014

124 photographs,
3 short films: INDUSTRIAL SOUNDSCAPE, BUG CRAWLS, INTERVALOMETER: STEPS
and a sound installation: THE AIR IS ON FIRE_ I (Station)

Portrait of David Lynch (c) Mark Berry

MAST presents the Italian debut of the The Factory Photographs by David Lynch. These black-and-white photographs exude Lynch’s fascination with factories, his obsession with smokestacks, chimneys, machinery, darkness and mystery. For more than 30 years now, David Lynch has been photographing derelict monuments of industrialization: brick structures with arches, cornices, domes, and towers, with portals and high windows, resemble cathedrals. These are remnants of a lost world, when factories were proud milestones of progress, today deserted wastelands, scenarios for stories loaded with the emotional aura so characteristic of Lynch.

The photographs were shot between 1980 and 2000, depicting factories in and around Berlin and in Poland, England, New York City, New Jersey and Los Angeles. It is as if the soot, or the vapors and fine dust of the place have deposited themselves onto their surface: they look like charcoal drawings, haptic, the graphic lines in inky black and shades of gray. In a captivating way, the photographs reveal the unmistakeable hand of Lynch: magical, surreal imagery resemble dreamlike sequences in subjects, moods, and nuances of color. They evoke the labyrinthine, brooding and enigmatic quality of his films.

David Lynch, Untitled (Lodz), 2000

David Lynch, an icon of American cinema, was born in Missoula, Montana in 1946 and lives in Los Angeles. A director, screenwriter and producer, he is also an accomplished painter, musician, designer and photographer. He initially devoted himself to painting: in 1966 he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he created his first short film. He later moved to Los Angeles. Lynch’s first film, Eraserhead (1977) became a “cult classic”. The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001) each brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Director. Dune (1984), Wild at Heart (1990), Lost Highway (1997), The Straight Story (1999), INLAND EMPIRE (2006) and the television series Twin Peaks (1990 -1991) have been honored with numerous awards. (Source: MAST)