This Friday: Computers Have A Lot To Answer For

By Julia Weeman in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 2, 2012 7:00PM

Album cover for The Mars Volta's De-Loused In The Comatorium

Known as the "6th Member of Pink Floyd," Storm Thorgerson has created some of music's most iconic images including the covers for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and Wish You Were Here, as well as Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and more recently, The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium. This Friday, Public Works Gallery presents a 40-year retrospective of his photographic prints, aptly titled Computers Have A Lot To Answer For.

Thorgerson's dreamlike images push the limits of what is possible in the physical world, but the most amazing part about his work is that it is created within those boundaries. Working completely without the use of digital technology, he didn't use photoshop to makes pigs fly, he launched a 40-foot swine balloon over London. When the light wasn't perfect for an elaborate shot requiring 750 steel hospital beds on a beach, he reinstalled the next day.

Though often accused of surrealist intentions, Thorgerson sidesteps this classification and instead sees his work as a solution to a complex problem that the artist, music, and record label lay before him. He is more than an artist - he is a production mastermind who uses elaborate sets, stunts, intricate image composition, and complex photo montage to create seemingly impossible images. "I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality...to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?"

Since forming design studio Hipgnosis in 1968, Thorgerson has completed over 300 album covers for bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, ELO, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Paul McCartney, and more recently Phish, The Cranberries, The Mars Volta, Megadeth, Anthrax and Muse.

This show will feature 28 photographic prints along with copies of Thorgeson's recently released book, The Raging Storm. The artist will be present during the opening reception on Friday, September 7 at 7 p.m. at Public Works Gallery, located at 1539 N. Damen Ave. in Wicker Park. The show runs through November 2.