"portraits: adam fieled, american artist"

7/28/2019 "PORTRAITS: ADAM FIELED, AMERICAN ARTIST"

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PORTRAITS:

ADAM FIELED,AMERICAN

ARTIST
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BGCi_MtPW08/UI_b5cyVF9I/AAAAAAAADrI/WJzpqYYrUec/s1600/AdamClarkPark.jpg


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PREFACE

For an artist, looking at photographs of ones self can be an exercise in narcissism or avista to something higher. I would prefer the move to higher ground and my first confession,in doing so, is that more than half of the memories these portraits bring back are either painfulones or have pain built into them somewhere. My childhood had a hinge to the Dickensian my

parents divorced when I was four, and both remarried and remarried again. I lived in astaggering number of different locales as a child (many of them were Cheltenham locales,many not). I was very talented and very bright; but also rebellious and punkish. TheCheltenham school system was a site of many heists, and one of their heists (partly owing tomy rebelliousness, partly to my parents inferior funds and connections) was to put me downforwards, backwards, and sideways. I was often ranked beneath children far less bright, andless talented. Like many products of broken homes in America, I was also forced to grow up toofast. Thats one reason I look unusually self-possessed in my childhood portraits. If I was goingto survive, I had no option but to be self-possessed. Even if Cheltenham High School (whosefavors and promotions could be bought and sold with the right funds and connections) was soharrowing to me that it turned me briefly into a zombie (see the Jenkintown 90 portrait).

Cheltenham was the nadir of my life a community so corny, cheesy, and conformistthat it killed off most of its progeny before they were of age to leave, and face the wider world

(universities in America are not so easily bought off). Kelly McCabes State College portrait ofme captures a more germane moment, even if the impulse behind my posture is still defianceand riskIm staking my claim as a rocked out version of Stephen Dedalus, whose life pivots onthe arts and whose self-conceptions can only concern a personal quest for supreme artistry,cutting against grains if necessary. Its a shame my NYC year(98-99) is unrepresented theEast Village street kid look I put together was unique. Something might emerge at a later date.The Philadelphia portraits, which constitute the bulk of the collection, run the gamut, from theMandarinite impulses of higher art (the portraits, both photos and paintings, from Mary Harjuand Abby Heller-Burnham) to the grunge of Goth fashions and updated glam-rock (LinderRanieris 00 portraits of me at PMA and on Pine Street).

There are portraits in the middle, too stills from the videos shot at the Eris Temple inWest Philly, Dawn Gaileys yeomans portrait of me at the Last Drop in 08.One word about therecurrent black and red flannel I bought it in Concord, New Hampshire, at a Wal-Mart in 2005

(thanks for the ride, Jon Anderson). Its not available on the Eastern seaboard. I only bought itbecause the airline I took from Philly to Manchester lost part of my luggage. It looked freakishin Center City Philly, which is why I continued to wear it New England chic! The black scarfwas added for a further level of freakishness. That having been said, neither I nor anyone elsein PFS thought much in a calculated way about our threads. We did care about the mechanicsof serious photography composition, coloration, ambience/ vibe. The portraits here whichwill last the longest are the ones most attentive to these aesthetic details. Every one of themwas taken (as were all the PFS portraits) on the cheap and I (and we) still look better thanthe majority of L.A. and New York show-biz types, even with millions of dollars (manifested inmake-up technicians, trick angles and lighting, and borrowed ensembles) behind them. Whatwe did, we did ourselves; and the limitations on our activities were more empowering thannot.

Adam Fieled, 2013


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ADAM FIELED IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA, 1982


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PORTRAIT: ADAM FIELED AND MARY HARJU (MARY HARJU)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-56tK34DA1oE/T_8sGXstMeI/AAAAAAAAB8w/bXOhEMke9uM/s1600/Mary'sPainting.jpg


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PORTRAIT: ADAM FIELED (ABBY HELLER-BURNHAM)
http://stainofpoetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/adam4.jpghttp://stainofpoetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/adam4.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AT MELROSE ACADEMY, HALLOWEEN 1981


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READING IN WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN, 3-30-07


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ADAM FIELED ON PINE STREET, 2000 (LINDER RANIERI)


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PORTRAIT: ADAM FIELED (MARY HARJU)


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ADAM FIELED AT NORTH HALLS, PSU, STATE COLLEGE 94 (KELLY

McCABE)


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ADAM FIELED ON SOUTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, 4-15-78


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ADAM FIELED AT THE HIGHWIRE GALLERY, 07 (ABBI DION)


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ADAM FIELED, LAURA SOLOMON, AND NICK MOUDRY AT THE ERIS TEMPLE,

WEST PHILLY, 06


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ADAM FIELED AT THE PMA, 2000 (LINDER RANIERI)


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ADAM FIELED IN JENKINTOWN, 90


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ADAM FIELED WITH FRIEND, SOUTH PHILADELPHIA, 1982


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ADAM FIELED AT MAIN STREET WEST 2004 (MATT STEVENSON)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dgzth9yx8V4/UNoB6lq0DzI/AAAAAAAAGMc/gsZCo0cHpCE/s1600/adamatwebsterstreet.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AT THE ERIS TEMPLE, 10 (MATT STEVENSON)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7snFO-Xdb3g/UNTFIFQc6NI/AAAAAAAAGE0/k3H5vuux0Jg/s1600/Adam+Fieled+arted+up+a+bit.jpg


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ADAM FIELED READING AT STAIN BAR, BROOKLYN, 3-30-07 (AMY KING)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zoeZQO4z8TU/UOCL91ikmgI/AAAAAAAAGSE/zbepYTuUA9E/s1600/AdamBrooklyn.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AND KRISTY ODELIUS IN ANDERSONVILLE, CHICAGO, 7-6-07

(TIMOTHY YU)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tympan/751470541/


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ADAM FIELED IN CLARK PARK, WEST PHILADELPHIA 02 (MARY HARJU)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BGCi_MtPW08/UI_b5cyVF9I/AAAAAAAADrI/WJzpqYYrUec/s1600/AdamClarkPark.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AND MARY HARJU AT 154 NORTH 21ST ST, LOGAN SQUARE,

PHILADELPHIA, 02 (ABBY HELLER-BURNHAM)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TiqeTLyBvBM/UAts6qbMtkI/AAAAAAAACEQ/4yHJbmc1Rpg/s1600/adamandmary.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AT THE LAST DROP COFFEEHOUSE, 13TH AND PINE,

PHILADELPHIA 08 (DAWN GAILEY)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2BikGKMpMQs/UH7Ll5bEKiI/AAAAAAAAC7U/pXuKYvKCW8Y/s1600/7924951052_d0c2c18bc1_m.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AND MARY HARJU IN THE MONTREAL BOTANICAL GARDENS,

AUGUST 03
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EqtIRYhUJBg/UEAReem__SI/AAAAAAAACKI/XzeWoo1_7YA/s1600/MaryBotanical.jpg


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VIDEO STILL: ADAM FIELED AT THE ERIS TEMPLE, 52ND AND CEDAR, NORTH-

WEST PHILADELPHIA, 10
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--tBg8OKVGQQ/UJGNgVd8ZMI/AAAAAAAADz0/xrzOGo2QQWY/s1600/FieledVideoStill1.jpg


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ADAM FIELED AT 7825 MILL ROAD, ELKINS PARK, PA, 79
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56740117@N04/8568660156

"portraits: adam fieled, american artist"

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