critique friday may 4th and friday may 11th

students,
next week we will have crit in the morning  (this is our makeup class),
caitlyn hofer will be going at 9am sharp,
lucy MAY be going at 945am
will anyone else be going next week friday may 4th?
please le me know asap,
otherwise, see you
friday may 4th...

individual meetings on wed 4/25

sorry for the confusion, i am leaving town thursday morning so i am trying to schedule as many of the meetings on wednesday as possible...here is the list so far, please email asap to request a time wednesday (if possible or make other arrangements) at jasonlazarus.photo@gmail.com:

tues
elliott          1230pm at cage

wednesday (meet in room that has cage):

shreya      930am

dana         10 am
caitlyn      1030
kathy cho 1130
lucy         noon
patrick     1pm
rachel       345pm
karin        415pm

First Week of Crits

I will go during the first week of crits (during our crit week make up class)

Thanks!

Javascript Randomization Code

http://www.patrickasanchez.com/aaliw/video1.html Click Tools > Developer Tools > View Source > View Source to see the javascript used. The nine videos here all automatically refresh every minute or two and the sound from each video plays with the other videos on the page to make a kind of soundtrack. This code was used in an installation last year for this project in a projection / sound piece. Either way, let me know if you want help with it...

students, please be ready to discuss onlonging pdf on the portal first thing!

best, jason

New Aesthetic(s): Texts from Hillary & Twitter Visualization

See also... Texts from Hillary. This blog was started as a joke I guess and then quickly launched into a weekend rage with several news and television sources citing the blog within three days. Finally Hillary herself joined in by submitting a photograph and the two guys who started the project decided to end it as there was nothing left they could accomplish. Crazy stuff. http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/

just saw this:

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2012/04/an-essay-on-the-new-aesthetic/

did i tell you guys about this project i started?

www.occupy837.com

a nationwide sonic protest!

New York Times Article about teaching art

In this new book, compiled by the editors of the art magazine Paper Monument, dozens of artists and teachers speak about the best art assignments they’ve given or received or even heard of. http://nyti.ms/GZdUdr

I read this on the train this morning and thought it was really interesting!

how to get an art review...really!

http://chicagoartistsresource.org/visual-arts/node/40110

...

http://pascal.fellonneau.free.fr/EnglishVersion/Candidates/index.html

The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard

Review of "Wow-House" at Johalla Projects and Laura Letinsky at the MCA

Johalla Projects – “Wow-house”

Johalla’s “Woo-house” was a refreshing gallery show. It did not take itself to seriously, yet it was dealing with a complex and very now topic: the intersection of furniture, décor and art.

The collection of pieces in the show blurred the line between art and edifice in a way that made the viewer consider the possible implications “living with art.” Most interesting perhaps was the paper circle rug. It was decorative and constructed like a rug would have been. Yet it was not a functioning object, you could not walk on it, instead I found myself walking around it. By referencing the nature of the decorative object but then completely altering its function, this piece addresses the complicated relationship between function and décor.

For a gallery to mount this show was surprising to me, in a way the show is questioning their very purpose. Galleries sell work to clients who then choose how to display the work, sometimes using it as décor. The space between the production of art and the act of selling it to private collector has always been a fascinating disconnect in the art world. This show is very frank in the way that it explores this disconnect through a body of work presented in a gallery.

Laura Letinsky at the MCA

Letinsky’s past still lives have always had a contemplative stillness, and a very formal esthetic. While the objects in her earlier work felt “off” in a certain way (used, or rotten, or askew), her new subject matter feels both playful and contemplative. By using manipulated images Letinsky is playing with the very nature of representation and perhaps decay.

These still lives have the same quietness as her earlier work, yet the play with images on paper, becomes a surprising punctum. Letinsky is using both the positive and negative space of her cut outs, implying the significance of form as well as subject matter. Her play with both presence and absence is also reflected in the very way that she photographs, her images are very flat and evenly lit. This creates a flattening effect between the background and the various forms present on the picture plane. The manipulated three-dimensional nature of the prints within the image become flatted again through the way Letinsky photographs.

This work seems to be a natural departure from Letinky’s earlier work, yet a more playful examination of the same theme, producing compelling results.

Review of Three Vertices at LVL3

The current exhibition Three Vertices at LVL3 celebrates this phenomenal gallery's two year anniversary as well as the opening of their new publications shop. Indeed this show is a reason for celebration; the art and curation of Three Vertices is spectacular.

Showcasing five artists, there is a modest amount of work on display in LVL3. Even with such a humble quantity of art to see, the curatorial direction of the show is clear to see. The audience is confronted with a playful adaptation of the utopian icons of high modernism with the materials of a postmodern era. Of particular noteworthiness is Austin-based artist Nathan Green's work Inlay that utilizes various pieces of corrugated cardboard and paper to construct what is essentially a modernist grid. Subtle variations in fragmented green and blue allude to the work of Bauhaus artist Josef Alber's infamous color studies. Green indeed notes in his statement that his work is a combination of "art history [meeting] Home Depot".

The only downside to Three Vertices (and it is a minute grievance to be sure) is the inclusion of Clay Hickson's graphite drawings. These pieces amalgamate absurd postmodern subject matter with the hyper-formalist geometric abstractions of modernism. While they certainly deserve merit in and of themselves, they differ greatly from the rest of the works by combining art history with the contemporary in purely subject matter rather than the combination of material and image.

Three Vertices runs at LVL3 until March 25th with viewings arranged by appointment with the gallery's staff. Email them soon for this exhibition is well worth going out of your way to see.

Review of Carl Baratta's Sweet Water at Lloyd Dobler

Carl Baratta's exhibition of new work entitled Sweet Water, currently on display at Lloyd Dobler until April 28th, is by all means a showcasing of contradiction. While Baratta's newest paintings seem to offer up a multiple course meal of intriguing processes, content, and aesthetics, there is a slight hitch in that all of these elements ultimately lead to a vacuous cancellation of coherence.

The paintings in Sweet Water are almost all relatively small-scale works of egg tempera, gouache, and watercolor on boards. The exception of course is the 5' x 10' leviathan entitled You're never Going to Make It, & No One's Gonna Help You that dominates an entire wall of Lloyd Dobler's modestly sized space. Baratta looks to landscape for subject matter and depicts hellish looking forests with hidden figures and withered trees in a style reminiscent of both childish naivety and art brut. Already we have a perplexing contradiction as the aesthetic inclinations of a kindergardener collide with this Ballardian atrocity exhibition, a collision that synthesizes little more than a quick shock that is soon made predictable by repetition. One might hazard a guess that the use of egg tempera, an ennobled medium, juxtaposed with puerile application of the paint leads to interest. But again, the disturbing and subtly anthropomorphic landscapes of Baratta's paintings prevent the egg tempera-rendered childishness from forming a dialectical unity. It is in fact this nearly dialectical relationship that annulled my last hope of finding a concrete message of ecological activism in the artist's decapitated trees; how could one possibly incite a political implication in a painting that looks as if it were made by a 5-year old schizophrenic obsessed with the materiality of non-secular Byzantine art?

This show is essentially a series of near encounters and non-sequiturs, brushes with cohesion that never quite resolve themselves. A patron going to see Sweet Water will likely come away from the exhibition pondering on a plethora of eclectic (and admittedly interesting) topics that nonetheless Baratta has unfortunately failed to address with more than a brief and infinitely vague allusion.

tomorrow!

meet in classroom
start midterm crits
go over to bfa show at 10am
do bfa crits
then
back to room
finish other midterm crits

i put a christian marclay article on the portal but we won't discuss
it until after spring break....

bring your game face tomorrow, jason!

summer growth

http://www.summerforum.org/

Memory (the game) via .gif

http://www.patrickasanchez.com/projects/memory.html

focusing out

hey guys,
the tony wight gallery show is great,
in the back there's a video that is a great example of 'focusing out' as we discussed in class (lucy/kathy/dana ahem!)
highly recommended!

Focus Out / Out Focus

def. 
out focus:  1.) from a path of inquiry that encourages extreme focus on a minute detail of a problem, question or theory. 2.) the shifting out of detailed inquiry on a specific subject back into the world from which the idea originated. 3.) fu**(^) blurry.

According to Google, the term means / could derive from:

http://api.jquery.com/focusout/

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cts=1330790979149&ved=0CEoQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshinzen.org%2FRetreat%2520Reading%2FFocus%2520Out-Summary.pdf&ei=VkBST7-OLcnZgQfXqLzdDQ&usg=AFQjCNGkwCBnCFsVQxcitWThcFsk54T8Sg

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Out-of-Focus-Out-of-Imagination/170652019642716

http://forum.dhtmlx.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19938

http://www.juxtapoz.com/Graffiti/focus-in-focus-out

http://www.123rf.com/photo_349096_naked-woman-model--focus-out-of-model.html
(stock photo version of...)

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22out+focus%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=KMD&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_UJST_yyLYqygwfR4aTXDQ&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1436&bih=775

http://focusleadership.org/Display.asp?Page=AboutUs

for Dana / Lucy (mostly)

Jennifer Scappettone (University of Chicago professor who made the work regarding the highway exit by her childhood home. She includes collage / photo work with text and vocal performances of the text in her presentation.)

http://oikost.com/projects-2/exit-43/

from UBU Web
Aspen Magazine: http://www.ubu.com/aspen/
(This is just a great magazine of conceptual art / craziness... kind of reminded me of an older version of the .gif format.)

from the UBU Web Papers Section, which can be found near the top of the page here: http://www.ubu.com/papers/
(These really just give a different sort of background for the use of text in visual or otherwise non-linear, but narrative work... e.g. cultivating a familial history for a personal reason through the display or use of images.)
William S. Burroughs -- "The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin"
John Robert Colombo -- "On Found Poetry (A FOUND INTRODUCTION)"

the cave

click on the image

links

Nico Krebs and Taiyo Onorato

Allison Grant

Olaf Breuning

tomorrow

tomorrow we'll be going over the Irwin text pages up through page 154...
there's a great moment when Irwin moves to site-specificity, which seems so obvious of a notion that it's funny to see him have moved there so slowly and carefully, but also surgically methodical and inspiring.

here's the reason i'm missing class:
The main exhibition at BIP2012 "ONLY YOU ONLY ME" will occupy the whole of Mamac – the city’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – including the basement areas that were originally intended and used for preserving paintings and sculptures and now totally given over to art-themed installations and videos. Nan Goldin will have pride of place at Mamac with a monumental projection of her major work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, surrounded by Erwin Olaf, Sylvie Blocher, Jason Lazarus, J.H. Engström, Eric Rondepierre, Elina Brotherus, Thomas Chable and very many others.


pretty excited and a bit nervous--the best feelings to have in both pockets.


start picking out a reading and bringing it in to plop on the calendar...i'm excited to receive your submissions.


i will be assigning a reading on jean-francois lyotard--i just got his book so i need a couple weeks to find the highlights and get them digitized...
i think i will bring in an adrian piper pdf tomorrow
and also hakim bey's TAZ!


i think kathy was going to bring in a selection from on longing?  please confirm this with me kathy


here's my artist statement i promised, this gets edited all the time per context:

ARTIST STATEMENT

By employing subjective re-envisioning of shared cultural moments, I aim to capture the moments and spaces in which our political, cultural, and historical landscape reveals itself from the personal to the public.

My artistic strategies include traditional photography and photograms, collected, appropriated, and solicited photographs and image-related texts, video, sculpture, and installation. The accumulated collection of these gestures functions as an archive of heightened moments—both personal and collective— that elucidate quotidian and epic contemporary experience.

Implicitly, the form and shape of each project enacts an ongoing dialogue about the flexibility and potency of photography based media, and the opportunities for meaning that reside in its margins.

i hope that helps you see how a statement can be short and cover a lot of ground.  i tend to almost always think shorter is better...


also, can everyone review two exhibitions between now and our next meeting (after tomorrow) on March 16th?  there are two i'm going to friday night, one at aron's space document 6-8pm, and the other at johalla projects 7-10pm.  post short reviews (200 words) on each to the class blog by 3/16/12...


see you tomorrow, bring energizing snacks...

For Naomi

The movie is called "Two Days in April" it is on netflix instant watch. It follows five draft prospects from college through the draft.

Links for Eliot

I mentioned a couple articles during your crit so I thought I would post them for you:

The Errol Morris article about the civil war pictures described in newspapers to help find the family of the victim is on the NYT website, the link to part one is below:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/whose-father-was-he-part-one/

The War of the World's panic is described in this National Geographic article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0617_050617_warworlds_2.html

Hope those are helpful!

FB

article on artists and FB:
http://dismagazine.com/discussion/29786/club-kids-the-social-life-of-artists-on-facebook/

invite to class

On March 20th twohundredfiftysixcolors and TAGTEAM are organizing an event at the MCA Chicago celebrating the animated GIF, and we’re inviting  you to participate.

The event, titled Downcast Eyes, will be a user-generated ad-hoc exhibition inside the museum presenting hundreds of GIFs in all their flickering glory.  

There are a few procedural criteria for the exhibition (see below), but in general there are no restrictions on what you can present.  Simply show up at the MCA with your laptop fully charged and your screen curated with original or found animated GIFs.  

We are specifically asking you to contribute your artistic voice to help anchor the exhibition which will then evolve into an open call to the public.  

We’ve invited a wide range of artists to participate, calling on the diverse talent that exist in Chicago to represent the larger, but no less dynamic, energy that exists online.  

With this in mind, pass this invitation along to others who would make a valuable contribution.  

More info about the event can be found on the MCA’s website.  Please RSVP if you can participate and/or if you have any questions.  We look forward to seeing you and your charged up laptops at the MCA in March.  

Ps: If you're getting this message and you don't live in Chicago, it is our hope you can coordinate with a Chicago-based friend to be represented on a laptop at Downcast Eyes!

Best,
twohundredfiftysixcolors (Eric Fleischauer + Jason Lazarus)
-and-
TAGTEAM  (Jake Myers + Chris Smith)


RULES
-You must bring your own laptop (or other portable device capable of displaying GIFs)
-No plugging in. Computers must run from battery power only.
-Arrive at 5:45 to set up and prepare for the event which begins at 6pm.  
-Stay for the duration of the event (or as long as your battery lasts)
-Show animated GIFs only – they can be original or found.   

DETAILS FOR PARTICIPANTS:
Downcast Eyes
March 20th, 6-8pm
MCA café, as part of the series Internet Superheroes, curated by Amy Corle.  

reading assignment

for next week read the irwin text p66-110...mark points of interest/discussion as you read and be ready to present your insights/questions...

Limits of Photography Review - Lucy

The Limits of Photography show at the MOCP was a very current concept for a photography show. Because of the vernacular nature of the photographic medium and constant overload of photographs in contemporary society; contemporary photographers are constantly trying to set themselves apart from the average photographing public. Various techniques are used to accomplish this (size of prints, large and medium format film, photographic manipulations, inaccessible subject matter, complex tableau). In this show the photographs confront the nature of the medium itself and it’s apparent limits as a way to converse with photography and it’s hard fought place in the art world.

Some of the work appeared to be easy answers to the question of “What is photography? Or more specifically what is not traditional photography?” Collage seemed to be the answer. Hojnacki, Shand, Hayes and Stapleton all used collage in various forms be it digital or on the page. These artists used more than just collage but also use the tools of collage to both hide and reveal meaning through layering. Collage is hard to do well. Stapleton is the most successful in my opinion but that could also be because we have similar backgrounds. Stapleton uses college in a semi surrealist manner. He uses parts to create a whole, that whole references real form, art history and the fantastical. Yet their strength lies in their references to the actual. The collages’ ability to seem “real”, and at the same time to reference the fantastical makes Stapleton’s images stand out from the other collage artists.

The two most thought provoking pieces in the show were the Brill and Mann works. Brill utilizes the idea of science and psychological trickery to create artistic inkblot tests whose interpretations reveal perhaps more about their viewer than the maker. The fact that the images can be read as tricks or science makes them in conflict with their own subject matter (like much early “scientific” photography). The viewer does not know if they should trust what they see in the photograph and that speaks s more possible fallacy in photographs.

Mann on the other hand uses the photographic process to test the limits of the medium or perhaps of people’s understanding of the medium and the dying art of making color dark room prints. Mann’s work contemplates how photography reveals and obscures information. He does this by folding and bleaching photographic paper. After it had been exposed via color dark room processes.

The two films in the show were perhaps the two most on point works in the show. Murphy used panning to show what is outside of the photographic frame. While Naka dealt with the way that we interact with photography via technology and it’s relationship to the corpus. His film dealt with this relationship through tactile zoom. Technology is known as a force that both connects us and disconnects us from authentic human experience but Naka put that humanity back into viewing photographs while also engaging the frame and zoom.

In conclusion the Limits of Photography show at the MOCP was a very apropos theme for a show, as it dealt with the changing nature of artists relationship to the medium of photography in contemporary art. Some of the artist’s hit the nail on the head with their works, most notably the film pieces. Raising an interesting question, is film the best medium to discuss the limits of photography?

The Limits of Photography, MoCP

The Limits of Photography show at MoCP revolves around the far reaches of the photograph image as it seemingly begins to break down into something else, or rather is built up behind the mechanical realm of the photograph itself. The artists that curator Rod Slemmons has chosen represent, in his or her own way, unique perspectives on the possibility of the photograph as a means for manifesting experience. These manifestations are at once contemporary and filled with an archaic decadence.

The work of Rhona Shand, at once visible in the front most space of the MoCP, depicts a series of decaying spaces where a figure often melts into the background or appears as a ghost-like remnant of what was once a person. These images follow an aesthetic of illustration and where one color bleeds into another, almost look as though they possess a watercolor base. Too, collage comes to mind and graphite as pieces of two images sometimes come together in surreal layers. For example, in the piece The Yellow Wallpaper, a figure seems to meld into the wall or to be emerging from it.

Randy Hayes display, a large grid of images called Pass Christian/ Koyota leaves one wondering about the deconstruction of the image itself. This work is a pair of extremely large grids that have been pinned to the wall with blue tacks. The blue tacks point to the piece-ness of the work, but also detract from its overall potential. The Asian-infused scene depicted in these two large composites are chaotic, but they do evoke a sense of disorientation more than a single notion. Perhaps this was the point.

Doug Stapleton’s collages showcase the reuse of images in order to construct a new idea. The weight of each image he chooses to comprise a new composition carries with it a meaning that complicates the collages at times. Simultaneously, the tradition of collage contradicts the quick capture of the photograph as mechanical output and begins an interesting dialogue with the viewer about what is most significant in his work, the fact that these compositions derive from photographs or that they are a new thing and then, speaking to what end? I’m not sure.

Finally, John Brill’s toned silver prints, often self-portraits, are abstracted and small photographs. They are smartly shown using photo corners some of the time, and other times below a full matte. The inconsistency of the way in which these images are shown make one wonder if some of these images are more delicate than others and then why they seem to be privileged, showing the edge of the image and thereby underscoring the material nature of the print itself.

Overall, this show offers a varied look into the process through which photographs have been used to ends outside the norm. Slemmons does a fair job highlighting difference in the show, but I’m not sure the difference presented is enough to offer a drastic new insight into the vehicle of the photograph itself.

Limits of Photography is a photography-based exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography that features ten artists that take the photographic medium and manipulates it to their advantage. Some combine collage, painting, or video with photography to execute their own goal. Rod Slemmons curated an interesting group of artists with the common visual theme and even though the show has its strengths, it also had its flaws.

Its strength resides in most of the images themselves. Particularly the ones in the room to the right as one walks in, was a strong set of images. Sally Ketcham’s images are interesting canvases of image, paint strokes, and map collaging that discreetly portray the balance between living comfortably and not. This room in general is well placed. Each image flows from one to the other and then transitions to the Doug Stapleton’s collages made from cut photos. The juxtaposition of Stapleton’s and Ketcham’s images has an playful transportation of the eye. The most compelling piece of the exhibit, however, is Chris Naka’s “I can’t feel my face” because of the simplicity and straightforwardness of the idea that relationship between the viewer and the viewed. Naka’s choice of using convenient devices is a fresh way of getting a point across, and not to mention successful.

Even though the show holds a lot of visually pleasing work, it does have its flaws. For example, the room that everyone first walks into is uninspiring and bland. Rhona Shand’s work is commendable but it seems as though these images could be hanging up in the rooms of hotel of terror. The painting stroke overlay feel aimless and kitsch. Then there is Randy Hayes grid of globs of teal paint of incomprehensible subject matter and painted tacks that definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. The grid felt detached from what Hayes writes in his statement and is definitely the weakest of his Ruins series. The placement of the best work of the show seemed hidden, Vera Klement’s work is at the very top where sometimes cannot be all the way seen for a class or group of people gather around the tables to view selected prints. Either use that room for one thing or the other because the gallery atmosphere is broken when met by huddled talking college kids. Also, Naka’s video is put in the stair case where one would have to stop halfway of the stairs or stand awkwardly right before the entrance.

Of all the work, the most interesting is Vera Klement’s collocated photos against drawn pictures. They are skillful pairing that communicate to one another based off of the poem that is discussed in the Karsten Lund statement. Her quiet portraits of single heads and scraggly landscapes whisper to each other as if they were produced already as one.

Overall, Limitations of photography was definitely a play on words but not just for going past the boundaries of photography and referring to the walls of photography, but because its space and the choice of what went into the show put a limit on letting it flow. At time there were triumphant portrayals of how these artists have overcome the limitations. Then again, there were also times when they seemed to limit themselves.

read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/arts/design/the-ungovernables-2012-new-museum-triennial.html?hpw

tomorrow

so tomorrow we're doing crit group A and discussing p1-66 of irwin...
looking forward to seeing you guys again!
ps: remind me to invite you to be a part of an exhibition i'm working on where you get to exhibit at the mca :)

Limits of Photography review

The show Limits of Photography, currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, proclaims to test both the boundaries of perception and the boundaries of creation. At what point does the photographic medium lose credibility as a convincing window unto the world and how might we reach that point through an investment in experimental technique, the show's statement asks us. One might expect from a statement like this an interesting inquiry into expressive photographic works, but an actual look at the exhibition shows that Limits of Photography is a rather lackluster portrayal of works by artists that are doing little more than digging through the ideologies of Pictorialism in an unimaginative fashion.

One likes to think that first impressions are superseded by the critical eye in analyzing visual culture. But one cannot help but be disappointed by the first artist the viewer is confronted with in Limits of Photography: Rhona Shand. This artist's plethora of images is composed of digitally manipulated photographs that speak to an intention of heart-on-your-sleeve catharsis. Indeed, Shand's statement mentions her goal of unearthing aspects of her own identity. Through the use of expressive manipulation and the content of self-exploration through symbolism and vagueness, Shand's images follow a little too closely in line with the ethos of the original Pictorialists. They offer nothing new to the line of inquiry Limits of Photography proposes to make. This dull Pictorial revivalism cannot be seen more clearly anywhere in the show than in Shand's image Untitled (Bad Girl), a distorted digital portrait that adopts the painterly aesthetic of Impressionism.

The second impression of Limits of Photography is not much of a step up from Rhona Shand's painterly digital images. Next we see the works of Sally Ketcham whose work in this show is composed of digital collages of maps and photographs of colloquial California culture then further embellished with paint and found objects. The pieces are in much the same expressive vein of Shand's work but the use of multimedia admittedly does make them more aesthetically engaging. On an ideological basis however, the images are haphazard to say the least. While the incorporation of photographs of shopping malls, big cars, and highway maps might steer us towards a meaningful and didactic political read of the work, the gestural paint strokes seem to antithetically point to an "any interpretation goes" mindset. Through this juxtaposition, the viewer is led to question whether or not Ketcham has endowed any sense of responsibility or stance in her use of strong political imagery.

Dry "Neo-Pictorialism" makes a comeback in Limits of Photography when we see the work of John Brill taking up the entire second floor of MoCP. While Rhona Shand might follow almost perfectly in line with an antiquated philosophy of photography, she at least has the saving grace of updating her aesthetic with new digital technologies. Brill on the other hand lacks distinction conceptually and visually: images with titles such as Visitation and Emanations depicting canonical subject matter are printed on a small scale using ennobled techniques and then hung in wooden frames that seem even older than the pictures. So thorough is Brill's marching to the beat of Alfred Stieglitz's drum that one is drawn to the statement on the wall just to make sure that this work isn't some kind of ironic installation. Nope, nothing there pointing us to believe that this is a mimetic joke. Just a paradoxical remark about Brill's intent to incite the scientific method in his images. There is certainly no science here other than the chemistry of "ennobled" printing processes. On the contrary, Brill's images suffer from a sugary sweet overdose of subjectivity.

Despite these three mentioned pitfalls of MoCP's current exhibition (and there are more to be sure), it's unfair to say that the show entirely lacks successful pieces. Chris Naka's I Can't Feel My Face, projected in MoCP's stairwell space between the second and third floors, is of exceptional quality. In this video work, Naka uses an iPhone to film himself using the touchscreen of an iPad to manipulate photographs captured using a cell phone. Naka ruminates on the necessity for a tactile element in engaging with personal images that have been rendered into the "world of slick and sterile digital imagery". While the subject matter of this piece is certainly rooted in the idiosyncratic images one takes with a cell phone camera, the piece takes a more interesting overall stance on the continuing need for sensation when using digital artifacts to interface with computers.¹

The Museum of Contemporary Photography's current exhibition Limits of Photography rather unfortunately falls short of its ambitious statement. The show does offer an extensive showcasing of work exploring the overlapping elements of expression, the limitations of perception, digital experimentation, and photography but the end result is rather insipid and somewhat disappointing. However, this isn't to say that Limits of Photography is a bombshell of a show. If nothing else, this exhibition is worth slogging through just to see Naka's video work at the end.

1. I use the term artifact in reference to the interface designer Douglas Engelbart's utilization of the term to refer to any material object that can be physically manipulated while operating a computer.

Limits of Photography Exhibition Review

The Limits of Photography exhibition currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, “explores the area where the viewer loses faith in the veracity of photography”, explains Curator at Large for the museum, Rod Slemmons in his statement for the show.  “The exhibition title exploits a double meaning”, he goes on to say: “the first is that many of the artists in the show push photography to the limits of recognizing it as photography. The second refers to the limitations encountered when we trust photography as if it were perception […] rather than a flat, constructed surface.”  When walking through the exhibition, both “meanings” of the use of “limitation” are clearly articulated in the works considered and support the show’s intent to challenge widely held understandings of photography and the photographic process.

             On entering the show, the viewer is presented with a large photographic collage by Randy Hayes and works by Rhona Shand.  These artists are an impactful way to begin the exhibition, as each artist deals with photography in a manner that, though still recognizable as such, pushes the viewer to distrust what is being presented.  Randy Hayes’ piece, Pass Christian/Kyoto, is a tiling of photographs of homes that have been directly painted on to create a larger image.  The paint entirely covers some photographs and allows others to become just visible under their new surface.  The painted image is photorealistic, from a distance it appears as a large manipulated photograph, but the direct intrusion of the artist’s hand causes the viewer to question the image created and subsequently the photographs underneath. 

The work of Rhona Shand is ethereal and menacing- she creates digital photo-collages that fall somewhere between crime-scene photos and spirit photography.  Her manipulations are highly visible in the work and on viewing them it becomes difficult to discern what existed before the camera and what was digitally altered.  The lines of reality and construct are blurred allowing the viewer to question the truth of what is presented and whether or not the image can be deemed a photograph.

            In the gallery on the second floor is the work of John Brill.  Personally, I find the work of Brill epitomizes the intent of the exhibition.  On first viewing, the work appears purely photographic.  The small silver gelatin prints point to the photographic process we are familiar with and the titles seem to indicate exactly what is being presented to us.  However, the images themselves are blurred completely and the figures in them are barely recognizable.  His subtle manipulations cause the viewer to question what is being shown and how it is being shown.  Once the truth of the image is broken down, we are then left to question if the images are indeed photographs by contemporary standards despite his use of typical photographic process.

             Perhaps what is most interesting about the show was the incorporation of video.  The inclusion of video pieces by J.J. Murphy and Chris Naka questions photography’s relationship to video and how we perceive video as truth.  J.J. Murphy’s piece Sky Blue, Water Light Sign is an 8 ½ minute video that pans across a light sign of a mountain river scene.  At first the video seems to be like any other video of a panning outdoor scene, but the visitor quickly realizes that what is being presented to them is in fact artificial.  Chris Naka’s piece I Can’t Feel My Face, upstairs from J.J. Murphy, was shot with Naka’s iPhone and depicts his silhouetted hand moving around family photos on his iPad.  The piece discusses the physicality of photography as well as the digital manipulation of it.  The work highlights the object-hood of the photograph and discusses how this is broken down in an increasingly digital age.  We are shown photographs in pieces and interrupted by his hand, questioning whether or not photography, and video, is indeed perception.

            The Limits of Photography exhibition offers the visitor photographic and video artists that are pushing the boundaries of their medium to question current understandings of them.  Using digital and physical manipulation through a variety of processes, the works become a blurring of reality and the viewer questions their veracity as well as the accepted standards of the medium.  As curator Rod Slemmons intended, conceptions of photography and truth are indeed broken down and discussed through out this exhibition.

Limits of Photography Show Review

The Limits of Photography show at MoCP curated by Rod Slemmons displays  a wide range of the limits and dimensional avenues that photography is capable of. The space is curated well as each photographer has their own clean wall space. Slemmons frames the show by quoting an ad from Life Magazine that provokes the viewer in a bold and theoretical manner. However, using this framework for the show seems to contrast the majority of the works do not compellingly depict contemporary ideas or manifestations in society's way of seeing.  

The majority of the photographers on the first floor utilize ideas of the tactility of the photograph, how the photograph interacts with other objects as things that occupy space in 2-dimensions. Sally Ketchum's photo collages lend themselves to the work of Robert Rauschenberg. His photo montage paintings were occasionally paired with a wide range of objects to push the limits of both sculpture and painting. Ketchum's collages do not measure up to the limits of photography as each piece is a timid attempt in the shadow of Rauschenberg's paintings 40 years prior. The textures of the painting and photo painting do provide some aesthetic pleasure but do not captivate the viewer in relation to the issues she claims interest in. Her use of compiling images from suburbia and painting over them with textural manipulations aim to become political with the title but fall short of creating a discourse. 

Randy Hayes' piece  titled, "Pass Christian/ Kyoto" 2008 also falls short of creating a compelling discourse around a political and "emotional" subject. Hayes' piece is compiled by tiling many silver prints together to create one image, which is then painted over in a quick gestural manner. From the beginning it is hard to overcome the use of the silver push pins and it must be assumed that it is intentional. However, after absorbing the piece there seems to be a lack for intentional reasoning and it becomes very distracting. There is a large disconnect between the Asian structures and the women and the painting and the pushpins. They do not seem to create a larger dialogue about anything as each element is very distinct from the other. The piece has a blatant rigidity because of the title's  political implications which are directly in the image.

The show's two video pieces seem to be the only works that are able to excel. They are both installed in distinct spaces as J.J Murphy's piece, "Sky Blue, Water Light Sign" has its own room and Chris Naka's piece, "I Can't Feel My Face" is installed in the stairwell viewing space. 

J.J Murphy's piece creates the illusion of a simple video panorama of nature. The viewer realizes quickly that it is not as simple as such but the simplicity creates a dimension of intrigue. The grand act of recording nature automatically ties Murphy to Ansel Adams and other members of the f64group. However, Murphy's intentions are not politically the same as the piece has an edge of tromp l'oeil that is more playful. The playful aspect of the piece also comes from the colors that are seen in older children's books or toys, which dates the piece a bit making it easier to appreciate the work of the 16mm. Chris Naka's piece is shot by only using his iPhone and iPad, which interestingly contrasts with Murphy's 16mm piece. It presents the ability to touch the photograph without doing so, rendering idea about the lack of materiality and yet higher capability of physically exploring an image within finger's reach. The piece allows the viewer to think about our relation to images as closer yet further away. This piece successfully links to the quote that Slemmons provides by thinking about seeing as physically touching. Naka's piece is able to create a question around his piece without answering it so directly which proves to be much more stimulating than the other works in the show. 

It is the artist's job to utilize the materiality as visual clues to guide the viewer in understanding and appreciate their construction and ideas. The show does talk about different limitations of photography but does not intrigue the viewer because most of the work's clues are disconnected or connected in a non-contemporary way. Slemmons' was smart to include the two video pieces which talk about the limits of photography by being videos. The artists in the show generally had work that seemed to lack a contemporary twist for their time. In some ways they were more limited by the limits of history vs. pushing the limits of photography. 

 

Project Proposal– Lucy

Sorry for the delay! For some reason I had written down this was not due until this week, but I noticed everyone had posted one! My mistake!

I thought I would start of my Project statement with my working artist statement to give a sense of my general goals as an artist and my process:

I investigate cultural and visual mores in my work. Photography is the means by which I initiate this investigation. I work in series, within which repetition is used as a tool to reveal. Photographs act as a means of cultural investigation rather than an ends in my work. They become a mode of perception and query.

Using my own personal history as a basis for photographic inquiry, I use photographs as experiments in understanding. My technique melds the personal with the scientific in order better understand the enactment of human needs and nature.

Much of my recent work could be considered “experiments in understanding my family.” Photography has become a tool that I use to investigate my own misconceptions and questions about my own life and relationships.

I am interested in issues of familial relationships and familial mythology. I have done such past projects photographing my family’s own constructed mythology about our origins. I have photographed the desire to create childhood constructions in my home and the aging process of both my grandfather and his home.

I would really like to use this class to create new work, but also to curate my past work with current work to give myself a better understanding how my different series relate and speak to each other as parts of one larger body of work.

Specifically, I began to work on a project about my relationship with my sister last semester. In the project I use photography as a way to investigate our relationship, our history together and our understanding of relationship to each I would like to continue to work on this project. Additionally I have been photographically excavating my grandfather’s home in an effort to better understand familial origins. I believe that these two projects will converge and would like to get feedback on these two in progress series in this class.

Submit work to Make-Space

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know about this blog that I contribute to. I occasionally post entries of people's work, and have been working on a few interviews that will be posted soon. After seeing everyone's past work on Friday, I just thought it would be awesome to see your work on here! We're open to all different types of work and mediums, even though currently it seems to be very fibers/painting/sculpture oriented. Please check it out!

Browse through it here
and
submit work: submit@make-space.net
(send 5-10 images, website link, and bio)

Facebook / Twitter / New Media Project Links

Here's a list of a few projects / collections of works using new media, and sometimes, social media sites as material.

http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/

http://dtc-wsuv.org/mla2012/


http://jamescoupe.com/?p=778

http://mashable.com/2009/09/26/twitter-art/


http://www.switched.com/2011/02/03/face-to-facebook-paolo-cirio-alessandro-ludovico/

http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

http://collection.eliterature.org/2/

homework for wk 3 (sub)

1.  prepare for full class crit with your sub aron gent, show him whatever you like...make it work for YOU!

2.  research aron gent, make him work for you!

3.  write review of mocp show, in paragraph form, 6 paragraphs (intro, 4 paragraphs with supporting points, conclusion)...post onto blog for beginning of wk4

4.  read irwin text p1-66 due wk4

5.  order In the Making text

Light Years

1.     Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph is a powerful and innovative collection of the conceptual photographers of the 1960s and 1970s. Photographers, who pushed boundaries and carved a new road for future generations photography.

·      Photography found a firm footing with sculpture and avant-garde painting during this time thanks to these artists and their explorations

·      The photographic image found itself slides, films, books, on canvas, and installations.

·      Conceptual photographers cranked out photographs as evident as one walks in to the exhibit.

·      Towering in the center of the room are Emilo Prini’s larger than life images “9 films” in an overwhelming setup that consumes the first room.

2.     Overwhelming is a good adjective. The show is a who’s who of conceptual photographers.

·      In many cases, the artists have more than one even more than two pieces in the show perhaps adding to the overwhelming nature of the show.

·      Particular rooms as a whole are more digestible than others for example Eleanor Antin’s “100 Boots” and Giuseppe Penone “Thorax”.

·      On the flip side in one particularly overwhelming room there were two pieces that stood out, Bas Jan Ader film and Ger Van Elk’s “A Rose More Beautiful than Art, but Difficult therefore Art is Splendid”.

·      In the rooms so cluttered with works made it difficult to stay focused and not get drawn on to something else.

3.     The artists in Light Years created work during a time when the world and art was changing. These artists challenged what had been and looked to what they could do differently in making fine art.

·      Photography and text, photography and canvas or mirrors.

·      John Baldessari’s, “Extended Corner”

Working Project Proposal

This past October, I began working on a long-term project involving my dad, which touches on our relationship as well. I would like to continue working on this project throughout the semester in our class. An endeavor, that as with last semester, definitely presents some challenges considering our geographic distance.

I photographed my dad’s artwork and family photographs with a 4x5 camera making the images my own. I also combined these photographs with related new works. Most recently this project was printed in various sized large prints, as well as, printed and pasted throughout a Bible on relevant pages.

The subject of this project is my dad with an extension of our relationship. I have a vast family photo and 8mm movie archive at my disposal. As I move forward with this project I am very interested in investigating the several other medias or possible forms: video, installation, and even creating a quilt from the photographs.

I want to investigate converting the reels of 8mm film to a digital format. How can I do that? I know it can be sent to companies for large sums of money, but as a student, an artist is there another way?

I’ve been looking at Mark Wyse, Kiki Smith Jason Lazarus, and Leslie Hewitt. Please suggest more artists.

The show explores how a camera may be seen as an “passive” (shooting an image without strict framing or intention that forces the viewer to think about the camera’s presence) form of documentation, particularly utilized in 1970s performance art

-Valie Export’s “Interaction” piece exquisitely documents variations of performances where she adheres her body to different landscapes/ground. In her images it is easy to appreciate the action because the position of the camera captures these performances in a particular angle that is neither loud nor disruptive, but still intentional.

-Eleanor Antin’s “100 Boots” 1971-73 piece documents her installation of boots in a seemingly passive form intentionally to make it appear as though the boots might have just been stepped out of. It becomes much more political once you realize that the people wearing these boots are missing and their lack of presence is suddenly very daunting. In this way the image does not appear to have very “active” framing until you realize that it is a setup.  

-Bas Jan Ader’s “Broken Fall” 1971, utilizes the camera’s aspect of time passing as well as time stopping in a frame, as an important part of his performance. The viewer feels the weight of the artist’s body slowly on its way to falling as it is frozen in movement.

-John Baldessari’s piece, “Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty- Six Attempts), 1973 uses both the passive  and active (knowing what you want from the image) acts of capturing an image to playfully perform a process.

Photography can actively be seen as a mechanism of drawing or mark-making

 

-Bruce Nauman, “Light Trap for Henry Moore No.1” 1967, uses the exposure of light to physically draw out his space in his piece, emphasizing the idea of light drawing or painting. Nauman physically makes his mark, placing himself into the frame.

-Alighiero Boetti’s piece, “AW:AB=L:MD (Andy Warhol: Alighiero Boetti=Leonardo: Marcel Duchamp)” brings a strong element of appropriation as mark making/ photography into the show. In addition to drawing on the silkscreen, he’s also created a relationship to Andy Warhol in the title, by using a quantification/math like equation to deliver the piece. While also creating a ratio of them to Leonardo and Marcel Duchamp (first name vs. last name basis also implies a respect towards history or importance), the piece ties in a large geometric relationship to history and time.  This type of drawing or mark making advances photography to a very different and intriguing level.

Ed Ruscha’s piece talks about map making, plotting as a type of photographic markmaking. Although in the past photography was used as a way of marking time and space, by adding a third element of place it is interesting that it physically adds another dimension to our ideas of plotting humans, locating them into the world.

Dennis Oppenheim’s piece “Stage 1 and 2. Reading Position for 2^nd Degree Burn Long Island. N.Y. Material...Solar Energy Skin Exposure Time. 5 Hours June 1970,  cleverly reflects the act of photographic image making by taking a photo of a direct exposure of his body to the sun as the light that imprints an image. The relationship is very dynamic because we must also realize that the majority of images were exposed to film with the same exact source of light, that from the sun. It playfully uses the sun as a light source but reminds us that it is dynamic and that the artist has no chance at beating it. In addition it is humorous that he openly accepts that he does not have a chance against it and decides to ‘sun bathe.’

           

             

Annette Messager’s “Voluntary Tortures” 1972 exemplifies the many complex layers of photography.

-From a distance the piece appears plainly as an interior design wall decoration.

-The interplay is created in this way by combining these images of women who are re-designing themselves in some way but with a “surrealist fascination for grotesque.”

-In addition, the idea of the woman designing herself in the image is starkly contrasted with the idea of home decoration and presentation as an image of one’s family or self.

-The black and white imagery not only adds to the stark contrast formally, but also depicts the idea of “black and white” ness and what it means for ad/media imagery to become overly simplified in this manner.

Photographers are very much interested in their images existing in a realm of intentional space and installation.

-Giuseppe Penone’s piece plays with the idea of the photograph by projecting light onto an already treated surface, that we may also deem as sculpture.

-Gordon Matta Clark’s piece, “Pipes” 1971, literally removes the surface of the wall to depict what the image is revealing. The imagery and its implantation into the surface seems natural and yet very physical when you think about what has been done to install it.

-Marcel Broodthaers’s piece “Portrait of Maria Gilissen with Tripod” 1967 connects the floor to the wall piece creating a tension in the space, a direct link to the paintings of Rauschenberg.

-Sol LeWitt’s piece, The Area of Manhattan between the McGraw-Hill Building, Columbus Circle and Tompkins Square, 1977, the physicality of the three points of the frame as well as the prints are very sharp, creating a consistent and mirrored effect of each layer.

Midterm Proposal-

I will continue working on the “Shelter” piece by executing it in other small and enclosed spaces.  i.e  Under tables, utilizing sofas etc.

My interest in emergency preparedness, and the kits produced by its culture, is derived from the notion of a product that is perfect and reliable. In a time of extreme need, any person is supposed to relay their trust and safety on this product, as if it is an  utopic cure-for-all. The idea of the product is built on the idea of supposed trust that it becomes unrealistic. It quantifies an amount of meals for an emergency situation (different quantity kits can be purchased,) as if a person has the ability to rationalize the amount of time they would need an emergency kit for. The irony of the product is that because it quantifies an emergency situation, it is plausible that in the event that a person would actually use this emergency kit, the amount would never perfectly suffice. This then eliminates the entire idea that the product is built on reliability when in actuality it is not.

I render this constant reminder of emergency preparedness and its breeding through the culture of fear as heavy psychological baggage. This idea of constantly wanting, needing, thriving to be prepared for emergency weighs down the mind and does not leave it to be free to live. My work’s main emphasis is to explore this difficult space of balance between wanting and understanding the need to be “prepared,” while also feeling that it weighs down on us. I aim to examine these ideas through creating spaces (manifestations of these include: objects, photographs, performances) that appear absurd or strange. This notion of absurdity allows me to playfully that show the struggle between needing to be prepared and avoiding the mental weight are not binary divisions. Although it is a balance, none of these issues are simply one extreme or the other, human emotion gets easily and understandably caught up in these ideas of risk, mental health and fear.