Portfolio > on deaf ears (assemblages)

The pinhole images and assemblages in “on deaf ears” are a collaboration between Eric Renner and Nancy Spencer. Twenty years ago, we began constructing assemblages, many of which dealt with social issues of human rights, religion, sexuality, and stereotypes. On a lighter note, we also made assemblages dealing with Mickey Mouse, Elvis, Marilyn, and our own relationship. Our assemblages have been greatly influenced by passages in "The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" by Barbara G. Walker.

In the summer of 2001, we began photographing segments of our assemblages with a pinhole camera, thus creating a second body of work separate from the assemblages. We did not originally construct the assemblages with the intent of photographing them. In making the photographs and concentrating on small details, we realized there was the possibility of an altered context in making two dimensional images of our three dimensional assemblages. The pinhole images make use of color shifts due to long exposures (6-8 minutes), vignetting, and altered perspectives enhanced by our choice of placement of the wide-angle pinhole camera.

This body of work is on-going. We continue to build assemblages; some of them we photograph.

Birth
assemblage
36"x24.5"x7"
Message
assemblage
17"x16"x4"
Rare Birds
assemblage
14"x10.5"x3.5"
Man as Ruler: Dickbrain
assemblage
48"x44"x7"
Elvis, Jesus and Coke
assemblage
45"x45"x12"
Evolushin
assemblage
26"x17"x16"x9"
Walking the Straight and Narrow
assemblage
20.5"x25.5"x11"
Woman as Virgin or Whore
assemblage
23"x9"x7.25"
Miss America
assemblage
28.5"x22"x7.5"
Woman as Witch
assemblage
24"x30.5"x6"
Prophet
assemblage
35"x9"x6"
Monkey in the Box
assemblage
9"x8"x3"
Axis of Evil
assemblage
17"x11.5"x11.5"
Seven Deadly Sins
assemblage
11"x18"x4"
Unclean—Leviticus 12:1-5
assemblage
16"x20"x5"
Golden Lotus Beauty Puzzle I
assemblage
21"x17.5"x3.5"
Golden Lotus Beauty Puzzle II
assemblage
27"x22"x7"
White Hand
assemblage
29"x25"x12"
Winky—Carnival Loser's Prize
assemblage
17.5"x15.25"x7"
Topsy and the Ghost of Jim Crow
assemblage
19.5"x9"x4"
Topsy and the Ghost of Jim Crow
assemblage
11"x9.5"x4"
"Visca Versca"—Popeye
assemblage
27"x24"x7"
Monkey Time
assemblage
16"x7"x3"
Santo Mickey Raton
assemblage
9.5"x7"x3.5"
Women Saved from Themselves
assemblage
25"x21.5"x7"
People as Pigs
assemblage
33.5"x28"x13"
Onward Christian Soldiers
assemblage
26"x34"x6.5"
Ticket to Auschwitz
assemblage
32"x28"x12"
Troubled Child
assemblage
13.5"x5"x3"
Devil as Bogeyman
assemblage
19.5"x16.5"x6"
Clipped
assemblage
25"x12"x3"
8/8/88
assemblage
31"x28"x6"
Rainbow Serpent
assemblage
32"x23"x5"
Skin and Bones
22.5"x16.5"x3.5"
End of the World
assemblage
38"x22"x12"
2010
Thirteen Moons
assemblage
18.5"x21.5"x5"