Atlanta was a bit of a lark. I hadn’t seen my friends for a while, and they were telling me that the weather was beautiful. So why not go?

Anyway, Chuck Close is on display at the High Museum. And the thing about Close’s work is that it frustrates my rule of “don’t do twice what you can automate once.” Many of his portraits are the result of carefully mapped and measured graph lines that allow him to create pixelated works. I want to use computers to do this, but he used a ruler and paper. Nonetheless, many of his works — like his early self portrait at the top this story — are truly stunning.

Rather more interesting to me was Roger Ballen’s “Shadow Chamber” show at the ACA Gallery. It’s not often that you can call a work of photography Surrealist, but, well, you might not have seen Ballen’s work. From the brochure:

Ballen uses the assumed objectivity of his camera to explore the subjective world of dreams, nightmares, and calculated chaos. He is at the height of his powers as a director, and each picture is architecturally rigorous, tonally stunning, and emotionally saturated.

Later, after some low-art/high-fun times at Whole World Theater, we stopped by Troy’s studio at Saltworks, where a collection of Iona Rozeal Brown’s provocative and fetishistic work was showing.

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We were excited in New Hampshire to have the first week of weather warm enough to go out without our coats at midday, but Atlanta was warm enough to hop in the pool and hot tub after midnight.

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Ben Apfelbaum died before having the chance to see it all come together, but his quirky idea seems to be a hit. Here’s how Jerry Cullum described it for the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

“The Ben Show” was the brainchild of beloved Spruill Gallery director Ben Apfelbaum, who asked one day, “What’s in a name?” and proceeded to track down a host of artists named “Ben.”

Well, actually, he asked, “Is the use of a given name as a thematic device as useful as any other thematic device to create an art exhibition of interest?”

Photographer and friend Troy Bennett stands among fellow artists Ben Boutin, Benita Carr, Ben Smith, Candice Bennett, Ben Wilson, Ben Fain, Marianne Weinberg-Benson, Lloyd Benjamin and Ben Apfelbaum (a different Ben Apfelbaum), and others. Jerry Cullum’s coverage of the opening mentioned Troy’s work — selections from his “Above and Below” series (image above):

His color photos look like bodies turning into flame, as in a mystical Bill Viola video. They’re actually unmanipulated images of a swimmer and an underwater pool light.

Find it at the Spruill Gallery, Atlanta.

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I do a lot of flying in and out of Boston’s Logan Airport, so I’ve been following the controversy about WiFi there with some interest.

The story is that Massport, the government agency that runs the airport, is trying to tell tennents — like the airlines — that they can’t operate their own WiFi networks. But the FCC previously ruled that landowners had no authority can control use of the WiFi spectrum on their premises.

Glenn Fleishman pointed out a November 25 editorial about the matter. The editorial calls Massports action a “frequency grab” and suggests a likely reason for Massports unusual interest in the matter:

[T]he airport has granted a monopoly to one provider that charges $7.95 a day, part of which comes back to the airport.

Massport’s complaint is about potential interference or use by terrorists, but Fleishman notes that

If Wi-Fi interferes with airport purposes than the airport is not operating itself correctly, and the TSA, FAA, and FCC should assert control over their use of spectrum until it’s sorted out.

The editorial remarks that the airport’s complaints don’t pass the “common sense test”

The airwaves in and around airports are used for hundreds of purposes, including cellphones, taxicab radios and local law enforcement. Yet Massport would have us believe that only Wi-Fi poses a problem.

Meanwhile, Atlanta has gone wireless, and Fleishman can’t help buy point out:

[N]ote that Atlanta is not whining, like Boston, about several existing Wi-Fi networks operated by airlines and others interfering with critical systems and emergency response.

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My friend Troy keeps a studio at Saltworks, a combined gallery and studio space in Atlanta where Prema Murthy just opened her deStructures show. I was in Atlanta to see Troy and family, so the opening was added sugar, and quite a pleasure.

The image above comes from Troy’s Above and Below series.

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