This first collaboration between photographers Glenn Amico and Peter Emerick and media artist Erik Sanner developed around the concept of “point of view”.  Each individually portrayed and interpreted the traffic cone in their own way for years before examining and presenting traffic cones together.

The artists wandered the entirety of Governor’s Island and captured still and moving images of the many traffic cones they encountered.  The traffic cone can be viewed in a number of ways – for example  as a warning, as a nuisance, or as a ready-made sculpture.  As there is no correct way to view a landscape, so there is no incorrect way to look at, represent or present a traffic cone.  However there are invariably different ways to do so, and the artists have endeavored in integrate various methods of traffic cone viewing into their installation. Video of the Statue of Liberty as shot through a cone used as a framing device, top-down photographs of cones in which they appear as circles framed by rounded squares, and images of cones photographed while lying in the grass looking up at them looming over the camera are just a few of the ways cones are seen in this work.  A hologram appears to shift as the viewer’s gaze changes position.  The viewer is encouraged to consider traffic cones as art, as obstruction, as helpful warning, and as many other ways as there are points of view.

Erik Sanner is a visual artist living and working in Harlem, NYC.  He has recently exhibited at Tria Gallery (NYC), the Courtauld Institute of Art (London), LICHT FELD (Basel), the Danforth Museum (Massachusetts), and Carmichael Gallery (LA). Sanner’s overarching goals include expanding our experience of painting by utilizing technology, promoting awareness of traffic cone aesthetics, and collaborating with artists and non-artists alike to realize projects no individual would have imagined or executed without sharing their visions and cooperating together.

Peter Emerick is a photographer working out of Jersey City, N.J.  He has shown his work throughout South Korea and the United States and is co-founder with Erik Sanner of the Traffic Cone Occasional. His series “Koans” is a body of work centering on aerial views of traffic cones and is about seeing and about looking, the basis of Photography. As Ansel Adams photographed the landscape of America, Emerick is photographing the traffic cones of America. While the subject matter is amazingly different the intent of each artist is the same: to focus on the chosen subject and explore it fully in order to discover the similarities as well as the differences.

Glenn Amico is a photographer born and bred in NYC. His most recent exhibition was at the Soho Arthouse (NYC) in May 2014. After his retirement from the NYPD Amico decided that he wanted to spend a great deal of his time interpreting and delivering the extreme everyday beauty most walk by without notice.  Traffic cones are one of his main subjects.