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.
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