Photography has freezing power. In a photograph, something doomed to die or change is frozen in ink. This is what artist Eric Lubrick does: he freezes the ephemeral and, in the process, transcends time. Deconstruct/Reconstruct, Lubrick’s newest exhibit, is on display this month in the Harrison Gallery. It’s a collection of photographs that involve flowers as subject matter. Most of the photographs can be divided into two groups: flowers that are exploding or motion-blurred (deconstructing) and flowers that are sprouting out of vintage radios (reconstructing).

Lubrick stages these photographs like traditional still lifes. His work brings to mind the Dutch still-life painters of the 17th Century. These painters would depict sumptuous displays of flowers — many of which bloomed at conflicting times throughout the year. In paint, they were reimagined as existing together in a single moment, free from the fear of rot. Likewise, Lubrick has immortalized his flowers, all of which have long since wilted after the click of the camera’s shutter.

Deconstruct/Reconstruct features a mysterious obsession with movement. It’s unclear why a vase of flowers is motion-blurred as if it is flying across the room. It is also unclear why many of the flowers Lubrick depicts are bursting into hundreds of fragments. The result, however, is mesmerizing. Lubrick shows us familiar subject matter, like a vase of poppies, with a subversive twist.

“I think of photography as collage” says Lubrick. He explains how photography essentially collages objects in space and flattens them into a 2-dimensional form. The pieces in this exhibit that feature vintage radios evidence this thought process. Take Poppy Radio for example; this is not an imaginary image— Lubrick actually drilled holes in an old radio and inserted flowers. However, his pictures of flowers exploding are completed in photoshop by overlaying multiple images. This blending of the natural and artificial are signature parts of Lubrick’s process and give the series a surreal quality.

Lubrick only disrupts his pattern of depicting flowers with a single image: Tether. In this piece, Lubrick pictures a half circle of chairs in an empty room. Are the chairs recently emptied? Will they soon be filled? The viewer cannot be certain. In Deconstruct/Reconstruct, Lubrick invites us into a time outside of time. Here, movement (or the lack thereof) is frozen eternally.

Deconstruct/Reconstruct will be on display in the Harrison Gallery throughout the month of July. To browse or purchase online, view our online gallery.