"Embroidery never seemed as dark and suggestive as in the art of London-based Italian artist Maurizio Anzeri. In his meticulous work, he transforms old discarded family photographs into three-dimensional objects with intense psychological evocations. “The intimate human action of embroidery is a ritual of making and reshaping stories and the history of these people,” he says. Anzeri uses synthetic hair as his thread of choice, which he stitches and sews to create a material and metaphorical medium representing bodily boundaries and biographies. The portraits he creates are both beautiful and unnerving. Masked faces of someone’s long-forgotten relatives radiate new expression, which reinvents old stories through an unexpected and new visual language..." - via Planet Magazine
This work is beautifully self-referential. Each image is soaked in the waters of where it was taken. It reminds me of the bleach treated works of Curtis Mann. I think the particular use of nature connecting these images is no mistake, as Brandt’s work shows, the familiar anchor that our photographic relationship with nature provides the artist with a narrow set of parameters to exploit while still providing the viewer a conceptual framework to function within.
"Like Duchamp with his snow shovel, Austrian artist Erwin Wurm can make art with little more than a rubber band, a pickle or some dust. Wurm calls himself a sculptor, though many people might be more inclined to call what he does performance, and what viewers usually see are photographs or videos of these performative "sculptures," or their related instructional drawings. With feet firmly planted in conceptual traditions of the 1960s and '70s, Wurm riffs on those traditions with his own brand of comic conceptualism.
The artist is perhaps best known for his ongoing "Do It Yourself" and "One Minute Sculpture" series (begun in 1996 and '98, respectively). These consist of written instructions and diagrams and any props needed to carry them out, such as "show your tongue," "lie on the balls--no part of the body should touch the ground," and "put the felt markers on top of your shoes, hold this for one minute and think of Rene Descartes." Such is the popular appeal of his work that members of the music group The Red Hot Chili Peppers are seen carrying out the artist's instructions for various pieces--including bassist Flea sporting markers up his nose and ballpoint pens in his ears--in the video for their recent song "Can't Stop."
Wurm's One Minute Sculptures don't always involve people. Chairs balancing on one leg or with two legs propped up on carrots, a banana suspended between sliding cabinet doors, and upended and stacked configurations of hotel furniture are all examples of Wurm's fleeting sculptures.
Though his work has taken many forms since the early '90s, the common thread is the question of what constitutes a sculpture. Is a person sticking out his tongue a sculpture? If that particular act exists only in a photograph, is it still a sculpture? Wurm's works share strong affinities with those by German artist Franz Erhard Walther, who in his instructional pieces similarly describes an art work as an interconnected event between a human body, an act and an object. Certain examples by Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Kosuth, Charles Ray and Dennis Oppenheim also show an undeniable kinship. Wurm continues to explore issues similar to those of 1970s Conceptual or Body art pieces that only live on in documentation. Whereas some artists are content to allow their works to linger in the realm of pure concept, Wurm encourages the implementation of his ideas. To wit, viewers participating in the One Minute Sculptures can have a Polaroid photo taken by a gallery attendant for a nominal fee. For an extra $100, they can send the photo to the artist, which he will sign and validate as an art work..." - Stephanie Cash for Art in America the whole article is here.
"Sometimes natural phenomena can become so estranged and mysterious, that we are inclined to describe them as unreal realities. It might be the extraordinary shape of a tree, a mountain, a shadow, a cloud or the mirroring reflection of nature in a lake, but it is foremost the unfamiliarity of the natural aesthetics of reality. The photos published here literally refer to such an unfamiliar natural phenomenon, a phenomenon that appears twice a year during the end of the autumn and the beginning of spring for the period of one week in an area in the Swiss Alps. During the winter season a village is permanently covered by the shadow of a high mountain in the west, which eliminates all direct sunlight. A week before darkness falls, the sun appears one more time after it has set every evening. A mysterious phenomenon known as Abendsonne . Misha de Ridder s works can be seen as attempts to capture these temporary phenomena and atmospheres of nature within the still medium of photography. By seeking for the absence of human intervention, by waiting for the climax of the temporal aesthetic and by pushing the camera to its technical limits De Ridder s photographs become both exotic reports as autonomous artificial worlds. The photos published here are visual repetitions of the area where the Abendsonne appears, at a lake, known for it s flat, almost mirror-like surface, taken under different natural circumstances and originally presented in different printed scales. This juxtaposition of difference and equality evokes questions about authenticity, originality, reality and the representation of reality within the medium of photography.An ambiguous reference to the unreal reality of the Abendsonne ." - Unless You Will
"Over the last ten years, dissatisfied with the often complacent values of the photography world, Clare Strand has assembled a body of work that is both subversive and celebratory in its approach to photographic conventions. During this period Strand’s art has developed through a series of increasingly interesting and unique projects that have explored various photographic genres, from Victorian portraiture to crime scene and forensic photography. In these series she has dwelt on the oddity of photography’s strange backwaters, its utilitarian functions and its infiltration of every corner of our lives, to make us question the value and complex meanings of photographic images. This might be simply quirky and strange, but in Strand’s work it is resolved through photographs of incredible quality and genuine originality. In our photographically saturated times, Strand’s work remains distinctively new and difficult to place, and yet it is also uncannily familiar, drawing heavily on the genres she investigates. In recent years she has consistently worked in black and white and has exploited the traditional qualities of the fine print to startling effect. It is the wit, the irony and perverse logic of these formidable black and white series, with their continued clashing and mixing up of photographic ideas and sources, that has won her an international reputation" - via Steidl
I recommend these piece highly: And So I Touched The Hand of God and Sunrise. Many of his pieces are web-based and format specific, so please, go to his site.
"Much of the material Collins chooses to work with are dated and with limited aesthetic means. There is an impending sense of mortality linked to the obsolete junkyard of the virtual realm, where things are lost, or constantly being updated or redefined. Core beliefs about identity, love and the pleasure of the visual are re-housed outside of a traditional artistic dogma or critique and re-presented as short intermittent moments; as enjoyable and entertaining as they are deeply resonant indicators of the current state of the world. " - Dani Admiss
Work from his enigmatic and difficult to navigate website.
"Michael Dean starts from short texts written in original print formats to give rise to an almost physical linguistic space that is meant to urge the audience not only to read, but to take part — both visually and spatially — the meaning of the short aphorisms. In his sculptures, installations and urban interventions, written language is transformed into new signs and characters that the artists invents or borrows from basic geometric codes." - Flash Art International
"the piece things to forget consisted of four site specific incursions based on objects placed in different spaces in the art hall. objects typically associated with public spaces were used as props to stage scenes based on existing interior details. the objects were placed as natural parts of the space. what is usually seen as unimportant details in the rooms were intensified while the original functions of the objects were either missing or distorted." - Guro Olsdotter Gjøl
From what I can gather given the lack of contextual information on Kowalski’s Plates work, it is examining the nature of reproduction and photographic fidelity. The photograph, and photographed object hang side-by-side, now related to one another physically through the compelling referential reproduction and the existence of the “original”. This is the most important aspect of the work, we are presented with the photograph, and the photographed, thereby reinforcing notions of accurate mechanical reproduction (and the artist notes that his work is shot in film) that is a humorous and pointed nod to Benjamin on many levels. In this simple and pointed critique, the object becomes more precious than it was before, it is the object, the original, the impetus of the photograph.
Pointing is a collection of fantastic and enjoyable appropriations and recontextualizations of images found at flea markets and yard sales, and most likely various and sundry other places. Enjoy.
"‘Svart Metall’ is an investigation into the themes and ideals of the black metal music genre. Black metal explores the ideas of ancient pagan and satanic views and presents these feelings in a violent, often cacophonous style of music. Progressing from the themes of the music, a subculture has developed in which murders, church burnings, animal sacrifices, and other barbaric acts have occurred. Grant Willing's photographic study into this world looks at consistent lyrical themes and an overall consciousness that is put forth by this way of life. The folklore and mythology are acting as the basis behind this fantasy, and the dire acts of violence that occurred being the basis in reality. By contrasting varying elements that are rooted in these central themes, Willing is creating an overall feeling of the inherent grimness and misanthropy that exists in black metal culture. " - Grant Willing
Below is a IM / email interview I conducted with Zipp.
The collages above are not originally diptychs, I have paired them for formatting reasons.
"Raw video footage is degraded using physical forces. The resultant images are then digitally captured and edited." - Collin Zipp
JT: One of the most apparent aspects of your work are the relationships between the limits of technology and process, and how the two function in concert to be a discussion of the medium rather than the subject. How specifically is process related to the conceptual development of your works?
CZ: Process in my work is very important, specifically within the landscape videos. I enjoy taking things apart to be able to see how they work. Unfortunately, computers confuse me. I don't use a MAC computer in my artistic process ... I find them too "machine" like. I prefer to use a PC because it WILL crash. It makes me feel like I am working with another human being, one that is not always reliable and has flaws. So for me, process in my art making is related to the process of the relationship I have with the technology and the realization that I am exploring the medium of video is something very important to me. The influx of reality tv, youtube etc. is overwhelming. There seems to be a desire to create and capture something "real". The medium of film and the structure it creates (beginning, middle, end) gives a notion of escapism. For me, exploring non-linear narrative and non-narrative works in a way free me from this forced escapism (regarding the content and reasoning behind the broken landscape videos and process).
JT: This leads me to my second question, you have a tendency to focus on the destruction and reconstruction of landscape, and in many ways, the virtual deconstruction of the concept of a landscape. Do you have particular interests that surround the structure and restructuring of information, and if so, how do you relate your analogue process to the degradation of your video works?
CZ: For me restructuring notions of storytelling and narrative is very important. In my work I try to find new ways to tell stories...
I know this is off topic but bare with me... I enjoy reading old fairy tales (i.e. The Brothers Grimm). The way they are written is fantastic. For example ... immediately you have to accept the fact a fox, a piece of string, a mouse, or a crow, can talk. I feel that notion alone forces you out of a particular comfort zone and forces you to accept any sort of possible outcome. A kind of "forget what you know" kind of feeling and processing of information...
As for the analogue process ... I feel that nothing is forever. Painting disappears over time, photos fade away, sculptures erode and break apart. Why should the medium of video be any different? besides, 2012 is just around the corner ... another sort of contemporary "fairy tale" have you...
JT: How has the process of degradation and your collaborative relationship with technology affected the development of your work? I ask because you have a organically technological / purposefully random aesthetic that seems to be integral to the video pieces (landscapes andnon-landscapes alike).
CZ: I find that the deconstruction of my previous work has enabled me to appreciate an idea, object or landscape (for instance) for its barest structures. Taking something apart or looking at the unknown about that thing seem to drive my current artistic practice...I am also more prone to making my work look clean or sharp, but yet still having the "human touch"... almost an "I was here” sticker.
JT: How would you relate the concerns in your current works to both the video work and the collage work?
CZ: Currently I am exploring contemporary storytelling and aspects of narrative: almost as an exploration of a contemporary fairy tale. Concerns of technology, non-linear narrative, and deconstruction are all tools I am using to take apart my current ideas and explore these concepts. Being in school for my masters (after 5 years off) has forced me to think and work differently, which is a good thing of course...
One contemporary fairy tale is the "end of the world". I am actually put off by that that movie with John Cusak called 2012 has hit the theatres; another boring Hollywood disaster movie with no doubt a happy ending. Such an interesting concept: the world ending on a specific date that correlates and shares so many coincidences with so many different cultures, religions, and current technological theories (singularity theory for instance). I'm not sure why the notion of our world being destroyed is so interesting to me, perhaps it is because we are currently destroying the planet? By no means am I not a hardcore environmental activist, but I am concerned not only about the planet’s well being, but the way the information about such topics is being relayed to us via the media, etc.
There is a rather informative interview here. Her ANIM8D GIF work is also interesting, but I could not practically replicate the context. Check them out and you will understand.
"Her reference points (cats, dogs, psychedelia, youtube, geocities, and so on) are all things very near to our hearts, but there remains something blissfully and recklessly confusing about Petra Cortright’s work. The ways in which Cortright tosses her ideas against the backdrop of video compression, cheap image software effects, and the general soup of internet culture make us want to scratch our heads with one hand and high-five her with the other. In a crowded market of “new media” artists working coldly with bright colors and animated gifs, Cortright brings something far more authentically weird, human, and funny to the table" - Whose Fault is That
"The Universal Now, is a series of collages that uses imagery sourced from publications such as guide books and atlases, combining photographs of landscapes or monuments, enmeshing them together. In the process of splicing and joining the images, cuts are made into the printed surface and the paper is folded and pushed upwards and outwards, creating a three dimensional object, a grid-like construction that changes and moves with your perspective, underlining your presence as viewer. These photographs have come from books that are now historical documents rather than useful tools, and would be viewed for reasons of nostalgia or curiosity rather than to inform a holiday itinerary. Within the piece Westminster 1915/1952 (2008), Reynolds has removed bookplates depicting the abbey and has woven the two pictures into one field. Oddly it seems that 37 years apart, two photographers have stood in precisely the same spot to capture their image. Reynolds is therefore able to take these two forgotten sheets and splice them into one another almost perfectly, creating a jarring uncomfortable object that refers to this unusual coincidence. Within these pieces parts of the images line up uncannily, where a landmark building remains, but the environs have often changed, underlining the passage of time. The series title refers to the instant when the camera shutter opened and closed, often years apart, but both moments register a 'now'. The precise nature of 'now', which is debated in many fields from psychology to physics, isn't resolved within these works, however the objects are infused with an overriding sense of time, as the viewer also encounters these pieces within their own separate present." - Seventeen Gallery
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The terrain of Mount Fear is generated by data sets relating to the frequency and position of urban crimes. Precise statistics are provided by the police. Each individual incident adds to the height of the model, forming a mountainous terrain.
All Mount Fear models are built on the same principals. The imaginative fantasy space seemingly proposed by the scupture is subverted by the hard facts and logic of the criteria that shape it. The object does not describe an ideal other-worldly space separated from lived reality, but conversely describes in relentless detail the actuality of life on the city streets.
"Eaton’s exhibit is a display of virtuosity, each piece a microcosm of what could become the basis for a larger show. Every print in the Emily Carr Institute graduate’s show represents a technical practice she has been refining for a year or more, as she related at the opening. “108_06″ unveils a bare gallery wall as a wormhole to the whole photonic spectrum through a process called “masking,” the contemporary version of which is commonly used in digital imaging. Eaton, however, uses the earlier and painstaking analog version: to create “108_06,” she had over a hundred uniquely manufactured darkslides laser-cut to her specifications, which she then used to expose one piece of film at a time to red, green and blue separation filters. “These are the primary colours in light [additive] colour theory,” she explains. “By multiply exposing each square to different combinations of pure red, green, and blue, I can make ‘normal’ white light and a set of additive secondaries-magenta, yellow, and cyan-visible at the same time.” She’s been working on the technique for approximately five years.
Eaton’s work re-imagines ’70s-era minimalist and conceptual art: a time when artists aimed to strip the aesthetic object down to its most essential state and concept took precedence over traditional aesthetic concerns (a serial work of Eaton’s-a diamond pattern captured mid-liftoff from its foundation of grid paper-especially invokes Sol LeWitt). Like her predecessors, Eaton uses a purist’s palette, but, rather than baring the aesthetic object, she reveals it in the process of undressing.
In the best of cases, Eaton’s hesitation in paring down the object imbues her work with a heady sense of mystery. We look through “Shadow 9″ and “108_06″ and glimpse the sensory world’s inchoate elements quietly gathering, but Eaton keeps the curtains mostly drawn. Her modesty creates a worshiper of the viewer, compelled by the ever-unfulfilled promise of the unknown. Certain pieces reflect her strengths to greater effect: the light from a window covered in film gels that she installed in her own apartment carries greater conceptual and poetic weight in “Shadow 9,” where its rainbows filter through a cosmogonally black circle of heavy stock card onto a white sheet of paper, than in the photograph of the window itself. Ditto the print of the window’s technicolour reflection on her apartment floor. But the exhibit’s overall effect is erotic: it piques and prolongs the thrum of audience interest and does not explore the artist’s maturity as such. To that effect, Eaton’s patience with and innovative application of singular production methods, and the visceral pull created therein, make for a thrilling tease" - Teresa Saplys
"The tension between computing technology that augments human activity and technology that automates it goes all the way back to the 1960s.
It can be seen in Viewfinder, a demonstration of a photo-sharing or photo-placing system developed by a group of researchers and digital artists at the University of Southern California. The system, which was created with the help of a research grant from Google, is an intriguing alternative to Photosynth, a project developed in 2006 by Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington that automated the proper placement of two-dimensional digital photographs in a three-dimensional virtual space.
Demonstration video showing the possibilities of Viewfinder. (Viewfinder Project) In contrast, Viewfinder, which is not yet a commercial service, is intended to make it simpler for users to manually “pose” photos in services like Google Earth — to place them in the proper location and at the original angle at which they were taken. It is already possible to insert photos into Google Earth, but the researchers said their goal was to make the process an order of magnitude simpler.
“We specify that a 10-year-old should be able to find the pose of a photo in less than a minute, and we are convinced that this goal is achievable,” the researchers noted in a progress report Thursday.
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all created 3-D world maps that allow users to virtually “fly” over the surface of the earth and view satellite and aerial imagery. The services are being expanded to include 3-D topography as well as 3-D buildings for some locations. The Viewpoint idea would essentially merge a photo-sharing service with a mapping service, making it possible for users to see what a particular point on earth looked like at a particular time.
The team of Viewfinder designers is a collaboration between the Interactive Media Division at U.S.C. and the Institute for Creative Technologies.
The project is made simpler by the widespread availability of geotagged digital photos, those that have been tagged with geographical coordinates indicating where they were taken. However, the researchers say that today such photos are generally treated as hovering “playing cards” in 3-D models, giving the world a flat 2-D sensibility.
The goal, the researchers wrote, is an experience that is both as compelling as Google Earth and as accessible as the photo-sharing service Flickr. The result is photos that appear perfectly aligned — and conceivably even transparent — to the underlying 3-D world.
“This is an attempt to viscerally and emotionally plant your picture in a virtual world,” said Michael Naimark, a research associate professor at the Interactive Media Division and the director of the Viewfinder project.
He said the group had patented its work, but had not attempted to commercialize it.
“We’re rabble-rousing,” he said. “This is as much an artist’s intervention as a technological invention.”
While photos are placed in Viewfinder, Microsoft’s Photosynth performs the same task by using image recognition and related artificial intelligence techniques to automatically analyze photos to create a 3-D “point cloud.” The user can then visually hop from one image to the next.
“We’re totally impressed by Photosynth,” Mr. Naimark said, but he added that people-centric techniques like “crowd-sourcing” are now giving traditional artificial intelligence a run for its money.
He envisions a world in which cameras not only have geotagging capabilities but also directional sensors that will make Viewfinder a more powerful way to enrich current 3-D world models." - John Markoff for the New York Times
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