The Back Steps

‘A single handheld image of Leighton’s children, sitting on the back steps of a mid-west frame house, seen from behind and overhead. They are dressed in Halloween costumes, and the initial view is nearly indecipherable, a blur of rich color, shimmering, a moving Velasquez. These figures sit, then move, and in a complex and seemingly structuralist manner, they rise, begin to go down a step, are pulled back to sit again, dissolving, fading in and out many times, but with a hidden and complex order, the passage lengthening out, before withdrawing again into itself, until finally, after 5 minutes, released, and the children go into the party where others stand in the distance. Out of a brief flurry of moments Pierce extracts wonder, anxiety, eagerness, beauty, and much more, all compacted in a stunning work which in another realm might stand in for Las Meninas. Pierce’s quick technical and aesthetic mastery of digital means is vivid, compelling and mesmerizing, but far more, it is utterly evocative of the children’s excitement, hesitation, pleasure, and wonder at this little backyard picnic.’ – Jon Jost