Organizations and artists need documentation of their work for their own records, and for their own sake. When the medium is performance and other time-based arts, documents may be the only thing that exists afterwards. Re-contextualizing documentation as a final form is a cottage industry of recomposition and reflection, generating debate. Yet if the document didn't exist there would be a lot less to talk about, and though our memories may be rich, the field would be barren.

When Mobius Artists Group member Bob Raymond began documenting Mobius events, his primary intention was to provide a record of the organization's work that could be drawn from to use as support materials needed for grant applications. Some of the uses and actions grew, in providing images for the artists, with other activities such as publicity stills for upcoming works. Counted alone, by photographing performances and installations in 35mm slide film (and to some extant 35mm BW negative) from the early eighties until the early 2000's switch to a digital camera, Mobius, through Bob's work, amassed a collection of slides estimated conservatively at over 10,000 in number. These slides and other materials have also been numbered, archived and stored by Bob, as well as over 15,000 digital images since the changeover to digital media.

This exhibition came about when Bob Raymond brought some new archival prints he'd been making to a meeting. Their quality, care, and presence carry the ghost of the event as surely as the event performed itself. And there was and is still a particular Raymond protocol, all the more impressive considering the results it yielded. His protocol gave complete respect to the performer's focus, avoiding the possibility of breaking it, for first of all, he never used a flash inside Mobius' black-box space and its twenty years of performances there. Secondly, he avoided all shutter clicks, especially during quiet moments, lest that too adversely affect the performer as well as the audience. Without a flash, he relied on long exposures in primarily low light conditions. There are, often, trails of movement as a result. But also as often, there is the stillness needed to register the image in focus, and something delicately in between as well. Raymond's knack for capturing moments, some in high tension and in process is clear here.

Bob Raymond also took his documenting a creative step further than most. To me, one of the distinguishing features of the work is how he works in detail as well. An image that probably would not convey the scope or general appearance may on the other hand reveal an important feature, or be framed in such a vital way that it gives its subject broader amplification inside its forms, yielding a new one. That insight is among the artist's gifts he has brought to this collection and to the Mobius archive.

Mobius' archive, which contains Bob's work and also documentation from others in the Mobius community, is on the move, too. One local university, building a new digital archives laboratory, has proposed using the Mobius archive as its project for graduate student interns. Another university is now considering housing the entire Mobius archives, including paper, film, video and sound documents, with Bob Raymond's images the centerpiece of it.

I wouldn't know, but I would like to guess, that in our time there is no other photographer with the record of commitment and continuity Bob Raymond has through his 28 years of documenting Mobius. I think it's high time the body of work of this artist and photographer be seen, noticed, and acknowledged. And I hope this exhibition advances that inevitability sooner.

Jed Speare, 6/09

Bob Raymond is a long-time member of the Mobius Artists Group. He is an intermedia artist who has worked in many forms of electronic visual and aural media. In the past, he has engaged in performance, installation, sound environment composition, video, and photography. He has been documenting (photographically and at times using video) the work of Mobius members and other experimental artists who might cross paths with Mobius since the early 1980's. He also maintains the photographic archives of Mobius, Inc. Until recently, he had worked for over 20 years as an engineering manager in the television industry. He is now weighing his future options on a precise scale, one by one. The floor of his workshop is littered with them.

Installation components of   S T  I  L  L    M  O  V  E
text by the artist

LEGEND (video)The inspiration of this short film could be retrospect to a popular monster story among students when I was in my early years. After more than twenty years, I composed this film with the assistance of my friends.

When time is involved, different experiences and thoughts might come from the same story. If, we say, a beautiful person's back view and the curiosity of that person's other side were the center of attention over 20 years ago, we might consider the figure in the pictures as scenery today.

"My shoes" series started in 2007, which includes my old shoes and sculptures and installations after the models of my old shoes. It seems to be a gaze or survey of myself and the outer world from me in another space.

My shoes (installation) One group is composed of shoes sculptures and salt. It seems the objects have lost gravity by the force of mind. It's suspending and floating in the air. Or it's moving but just couldn't be seen by eyes. Still or moving becomes a kind of relativity here. Another group is composed of cloth and shoes. The length and shape are changeable according to the space.

My shoes (slides show) A series of pictures captured different moments. The pictures were taken outdoors in natural settings. Flowers, grass, trees, light and wind are all parts of the show. I tried my best to preserve all those pictures, for none of them are more important than the others. They just existed at a different moment. It's a silent poem composed of paused or continuous pictures. It's a fanciful flight after revival, a journey of spirit. The image projected on the wall seems like continuance and shift of time.

For this exhibition, I pay my respects to the people who stand facing hardship.

Born in Fujian, China
1989-1993 Attached School if Central Academy of Fine Art , Beijing China
1993-1998 Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing China
2004 Move to San Francisco Bay Area. Lived in Oakland
2007 Move Boston