The art of partying is captured in the exhibit 'Immediacy'

Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo

Christopher Robin (left) and Chris Fitzgerald and works from their "Immediacy" exhibit.

An antidote to wintry gray skies, snow and falling temperatures are summery photos of people partying on a hot August night.

“Immediacy” is a collaborative exhibit featuring photos by Chris Fitzgerald and paintings by Christopher Robin centered on a party thrown by former fellow University of Memphis art student Clare Torina last summer. The exhibit, which opened with a one-night showing Friday at Material, is now on view at Umai restaurant at 2015 Madison Ave.

Photo by Michael Donahue

Christopher Robin (left) and Chris Fitzgerald and works from their "Immediacy" exhibit.

Christopher Robin's painting from a summer party is a part of "Immediacy".

Photographer Chris Fitzgerald captured the fun of sliding in pudding as art.

“We heard there was gonna be this party and we thought it was gonna be extra special — extra special because the theme of the party was ‘Pudding and Tequila,’,” said Robin, 39.

Torina’s Midtown parties usually are “thematic and well thought out, and there are a lot of people there.”

Robin and Fitzgerald, 31, decided to combine their talents. “It started out, ‘Let’s document this insanity and have this sort of almost competitive photography vs. painting thing going on the wall. One being a bit more objective, but still real subjective and one being very subjective — my part.’ Then it sort of evolved from there.”

Shooting the party was a departure for Fitzgerald. “I’m a fashion photographer and really into portraiture,” he said. “So, everything I do is really set up. I always have a plan or a story board and (I) talk to an art director and wardrobe. Nothing is ever ‘Let’s just go shoot.’ So, I wanted to experiment with that.”

He used a point-and-shoot disposable camera and three or four disposable plastic cameras. “I was double-handing cameras. I wasn’t focusing or composing them. I just wanted to be where the action was and just try to intuitively feel it. Which is totally the opposite of what I do.”

Robin set up a camera on tripods to capture images for his paintings. “Clare has this immense collection of dress-up clothes from the thrift stores. So, everybody started going through the dress-up clothes. Even guys (were) in dresses. They just saw us dressing people up and everyone thought they had to do it.”

They felt the party was perfect for what they wanted to do. “An hour into it we both looked at each other and we were like, ‘Jackpot. I can’t believe this,’” Robin said.

“There’s pudding flying everywhere and music and people are screaming,” said Fitzgerald, who took hundreds of photos, including people slipping and sliding on plastic covered with pudding, dogs, a guy’s sprained ankle, women in wigs. “I wanted it to look like it was shot by someone at a party. Like they were just snapshots and these exciting things were happening.”

And, he said, “It’s this feeling of anonymity. You have a bunch of half-naked college kids. There’s obviously some sexual themes. And this sort of drunkenness.”

Some photos look like rejects. “It was less about the photos, but more about the feeling of that snapping. It’s that Facebook mentality now where everyone will just dump their whole memory card on the camera. And it’s like there are two good pictures and 300 horrible pictures and that’s one of the horrible pictures. But you know there’s something awesome happening because you got bumped and you took the picture or you were talking to somebody and you had your finger on the trigger and you hit it. It’s just that sort of feeling and intensity and energy and excitement and fun.”

People were aware Fitzgerald and Robin were taking photos of them. “Eventually, we became completely invisible,” Fitzgerald said. “No one saw us. That’s where we got all these really candid photos.”

Robin took almost 900 photos in four hours, but he only used nine photos for four paintings. “I just used photos as a painting reference. This (painting) is a collage of four -photos. This (other painting) is a collage of six photos.”

If there’s a message to the photos and paintings depicting that summer gathering, it could be Robin’s statement: “This is how we do it in Midtown Memphis in the art scene. Aren’t you jealous?”

Contact Michael Donahue at 529-2797 or e-mail donahue@commercialappeal.com

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