"Mostly Cloudy" at ZieherSmith, March 15-April 16, 2005 The titled of Caracas-born, Brooklyn-based Stephen Bitterolf's exhibition, "Mostly Cloudy," reflects his ambiguous forecast for the war in Iraq. All ten of the small works in colored pencil were made in 2005 and share the same title, Falluja, followed by a parenthetical subtitle. Though certain subtleties vary, the scene remains eerily the same in each work. In March 2004 in the Iraqi city of Falluja, four U.S. paramilitary contractors were captured, burned and dragged behind cars by a mob of Iraqis; two of the victims' bodies were hung from a bridge that spans the Euphrates River. A photograph of this event appeared in the New York Times and other publications worldwide. In drawings based on that image, Bitterolf has "erased" the disturbing subject matter, and indeed any human presence. Perversely, we might tend to associate Bitterolf's chosen medium, colored pencils, with children. Here, any impression of naiveté is countered by the artist's meticulous process and the dreadful back story. What is not shown in these drawings may reflect the natural desire to forget such horrors. In Falluja (Full Moon with Clouds), the artist employs a tight focus on the glowing green bridge with one lonely street lamp to illuminate the steel-beamed, trestle-like structure. Equal attention, weight and detail are given to the bridge and the expansive night sky, where a small full moon softly illuminates the smattering of clouds. As with all of these works, Bitterolf uses tiny lines to build the changing skies that form the backdrop. Falluja (Windy Afternoon) widens the view of the now familiar landscape. Here, big, billowing clouds yield an occasional glimpse of brilliant blue sky. The bridge slices diagonally through this picture, populated only by the grove of swaying palm trees that line the horizon. Falluja (Early Sunset) returns to the tighter crop of the top of the bridge but capitalizes on a majestic sky enlivened with swooshes of yellows, oranges and pinks and occasional bleached-out contrails. The intense green of the bridge becomes subdued in this vignette as it absorbs the late-day sun. Varying weather patterns depicted in an intense, changing palette generate a metaphor for the unrest in Iraq. Even at a site of such turmoil, these almost delicate landscapes exude a certain calm and understated ennui. Stripped of the graphic violence that inspired the works, the landscape is infused with beauty and mystery. -Tracey Hummer Falluja (Full Moon with Clouds) Falluja (Windy Afternoon) Falluja (Early Sunset)