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Posts filed under photography
photophobia found
Photography. What is it about the medium that puts fear in the hearts of artists and curators? You’d swear it’s the equivalent of a silver bullet to werewolves given the reasons why photography isn’t allowed in galleries. The backwards thinking of the art industry is one of self-destruction, with every opportunity to get the word… (read more)
clearly grim
John Salt is an English photo-realism painter, but instead of pursuing perfection, he chooses to focus attention on the destructed. We could use more painters like John Salt on British television. Just think of the possibilities of a dented X Factor or post-apocalyptic Eurovision. Heavy gloss just doesn’t carry the day in moments of pay… (read more)
Boxed Light
Are light boxes sculptural, photographic, a combination of both, or a medium so little used there’s nowhere to put it? Liverpool’s Bluecoat Gallery is showing a Jyll Bradley survey of works, including units that are photographical, sign-like images that work best in the dark. She gets the idea from advertising light boxes, which of course… (read more)
voices carry
If one were to come across Susan Hiller’s work in a gallery, without gallery notes, one might be inclined to describe her as bonkers, a complete nutter, one of those other-worldly types passing on hokus pokus theories of ghosts and spirits. In fact, at Tate Britain (until 15 May 2011), with minimal assistance from the… (read more)
len_lye: science guy
Len Lye is Science Guy for art of all kinds. “How to Enjoy Art Without Thinking” by Len Lye. It’s not the original name of Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery exhibit (The Body Electric) but it’s the first notion that comes to mind wandering through the roomful of audio-enhanced, kinetic sculpture from the New Zealand artist. In… (read more)
Diane Arbus: the missing link
Now that digital photography is ubiquitous, everyone can, and does, shoot photos. Without difficulty, we conveniently take shots of our friends, who are more than willing subjects to pose for the moment. Our insane family members, who will only open up to us because they have to, easily give up their privacy while we have… (read more)
revealing the obvious
Eberhard Havekost; every heard of him? Me neither. Knowing who he is, at this point, is unimportant as he’s unlikely to be remembered by anyone in say 10-20 years. But Eberhard Havekost deserves a look, if only to be example-boy for What’s Wrong With Contemporary Art. Let’s get the process out of the way first…. (read more)
contemporary means contemporary
In October of 2009, the internet turned 40 years old. Not the web, or as some would call it, the Google machine; I mean the internet, developed by ARPANET for the US military to withstand a Soviet nuclear missile attack. Images on the internet arrived later, around 1990, when the CERN Institute developed the world… (read more)
manufacturing nature through art
I don’t quite understand the idea of trompe l’oeil, the french phrase for fooling the eye. Other than the obvious: to prove you can make something so good it fools others into thinking art is reality, it seems to be more science than art. To be accomplished at it is to be technically skilled, and… (read more)
decent docents
It’s only a pile of dried, grey brown leaves, swept into a mound, placed in the middle of Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery. They’re not particularly impressive looking leaves either; small and perfect shape, lacking in personality. They’re from the box tree, offers the Ikon employee sitting near the sculpture. He goes on to say that the… (read more)
a world of one’s own
Something that Jeffrey Deitch said in the book, Collecting Contemporary (by Adam Lindemann) I thought was a very useful idea for understanding contemporary art. Deitch is one of New York’s art dealers, with a background in finance as well as art. Although he doesn’t come out and say it, his perspective is one where art… (read more)
the unremarkable becomes art
Can a photograph be art? Images constructed inside the camera, or via Photoshop can be art-like, so it’s possible that photography can mimic art. But if the image is everyday content, and it’s, well, big, does that make it more art-like? Art World (April/May 2009) makes a “rare” interview with Andreas Gursky about his photographs… (read more)