Art in Review; Todd Hido -- 'Roaming: New Landscapes'
By GRACE GLUECK
Published: October 8, 2004
Julie Saul Gallery
535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea
Through Oct. 16
Viewed mostly through the blurry haze of a car window, often streaked by rain, Todd Hido's unpeopled landscapes convey a cinematographer's vision of American nonplaces. Shot at random on long rides through southern and western parts of the United States, they encompass ribbons of road, bleak or plowed fields, bare trees, rutted snow, telephone poles, a bridge understructure, a distant railroad crossing sign.
Weather adds atmosphere, as in a dark, rain-soaked view of a stand of shrubs parted by a puddly road or, in a crisp shot made outside the car, a deep skyful of ominous gray clouds behind a russet late-autumn slope that is bounded by bare trees and a classic split rail fence. Often, the marks of rain and grime on the windshield are inseparable parts of the picture, as in a blurry view of a small grove of trees in an empty field enhanced by what look like tornado funnels coursing down the glass.
Come to think of it, the show is a car's-eye view of America. So random and laid back are these shots that they might well have been taken by the vehicle itself, without human intervention. And it's done quite nicely. GRACE GLUECK