Peder Balke at the National Gallery

Paintings are boring. They are made by old guys who loved a long time ago. That’s at least what I thought when I was little.

On we went to the National Portrait Gallery. Many big and old paintings. And to be honest: Many of them were really not my cup of tea. But instead of going back to my old way of thinking, I thought: “How can I make this interesting? How can I still learn something?”. I believe I have found a way. When I look at a painting and my first instinct is “I don’t like this”, I try to look at it differently. For the painter the subject was probably the most important part. But who says that I can’t look at the frame instead? I like to consider if it accentuates the actual painting or poses as a contrast. Then I see the actual image. How might it look in different color scheme and perspective? Suddenly I see how the light highlights certain parts, while others are merging into the background. Did the artist only want you to see some areas or did he want you to find the hidden parts as well? Also the title of the painting seems different to the subject…why is that? I don’t know. But by examining a painting from a formal point of view I actually grew to like them.  One of them that really stuck in my mind was this painting by the  Norwegian Peder Balke.

Pedar Balke

 

It has the most beautiful shade of green and the light is amazing. After looking at it for a few minutes, I really saw what a difference it can make to approach (museum) in a different way than before.

Peder Balke, 12.11. 2014-12.4.2015, National Gallery, London

Taylor Wessing Prize

At the Taylor Wessing Prize where two artists that really made an impression on me. Sami Parkkinen’s portrait of his son inspired my for my own project. He photographed the boy in his father’s winter coat, which is way to big for him. So I decided to photograph myself wearing my father’s big woven sweater which, of course, doesn’t fit me but reminds me of my dad like not much else.

The other interesting image was from Richard Renaldi’s “Touching Strangers” series for which he asked to strangers to be photographed together while touching.

The images are quite emotional especially because we see constellations of people we would not think to be together. A jewish man standing next to a black man with dreadlocks, a police man wrapping his arms around a young girl, a young man touching a bride’s hand. These images remind us how quickly we make assumptions about other people. These men are holding hands, they must be gay. Is this guy followed by the woman who wants to kiss him? I hope the business man is not harassing the young girl. Or even innocent presumptions like there’s a man, a woman and a child- they must be a family. All these things might have been assumed had we not known about the project. Of course after a while we would also probably have noticed the weird poses, questioning facial expressions and uncomfortable looks.

Even though those people have never met before they touch each other which creates a feeling of intimacy. They break through social boundaries and seemingly contradict our society’s way of not talking or engaging with people we don’t know.

While some “pairs” show signs of strangeness many actually  look like they are best friends, family members or lovers. Some appear to be comforting each other, some like they’re really enjoying the company. And for one moment I believe that maybe that photograph, that interaction is what they needed, what made them happy for a few minutes. I like to imagine that the feeling was real and they met someone nice.

by Richard Renaldi

 

Photography can be such a good pretense for interacting with strangers and getting to know them but I still feel very hesitant to approach people- maybe I fear to be rejected. That’s why I admire Renaldi who’s managed to not only get one person but convinced two to pose together. I guess what I learned from him is that what counts is the final images not how many times you were rejected or something didn’t come out the way you wanted to. You just have to ask.

Renaldi, R. and Cole, T. (n.d.). Touching strangers. New York: Aperture

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London, 13.11.2014-22.2.2015

Lorie Novak

http://www.lorienovak.com/photos/interiors/interiors8.html

Artist Lorie Novak is a professor of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She received a MFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and BA from Stanford University. She mainly uses installations and photographs for her work in which she deals with memory and transmission, identity and loss, presence and absence, shifting cultural meanings of photographs, and the relationship between the intimate and the public (Novak, n.d).

What interests me most is her work about familiy photographs and memory which started in 1996. An important part of that is the web project “Collected Visons“. For this she collected family snapshots from over 300 people to create an online archive that can be searched for the poses the people hold, the family relations of the subjects as well as their names. Everyone can contribute to this and create a collective of family memories.

She also takes her family’s photographs and puts them in a cultural context. In “Past Lifes“ a photo of her with her mother from the 1950s is put together with images of children who became victims of the holocaust. As she says: “I become the recipient of the weight of my cultural past“(Novak, 2005).

For another project Novak made photographs of people holding photos of their family and loved-ones, signaling that those were missing or dead that she had collected over some time into the slide installation “Playback“. Her installations often consist of old family photos being projected on to the exhibition space.

Novak’s work has been shown widely in the US as well as in Europe and is held in several permanent collections. She has received several fellowships and grants and has been artist in residence at five different institutions.

 

Sources:

Novak, L., n.d.. Biography[online][viewed 25 February 2015]. Available from: http://www.lorienovak.com/bio.html

Hemispheric Institute, n.d. Lorie Novak [online][viewed 25 February 2015]. Available from: http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/people/lorie-novak

Novak, L., 2005. Fragments and Past Lifes [online]. New York: The Feminist Press [viewed 25 February 2015]. Available from: https://files.nyu.edu/ln3/public/pdfs/Fragments_PastLives.pdf

Paul Reas

Paul Reas was born in West Yorkshire in 1955.

He is a senior lecturer in Documentary Photography at the University of Wales Newport.

Reas is thought to be one of the most significant photographers who emerged in the 1980s in new British colour documentary photography. His work shows parallels to the one of Martin Parr- both are known for their use of colour and their ironical, humorous way of criticizing British (consumer) culture. Well known projects include “Working Men“, 1982, “I Can Help“, 1985-1988, “Flogging a Dead Horse“, 1989-1993 and “From a Distance“, 2012.

Reas works with a medium-format camera and a large flashgun because he wants to be perceived as a photographer (Reas, 2014).

From 1993 to 2003 he made his project “Portrait of an Invisible Man“. He made images responding to the relationship with his father. For all his childhood his father has been what he calls an “absent presence“ (Reas, 1993). He was always distant, secretive and revealed nothing about himself (Reas, 1993). The photographs can be seen as an attempt to understand their relationship, as well as an attempt to heal his “wounds“.

As Reas tries to uncover his father’s story he challenges typical family values such as not being silent and not conforming to his father’s authority (William, 1994).

Additionally to his art photography Reas has also created advertisments for companies such as Nissan and Volkswagen.

Reas work has been exhibitioned in over 32 museums and galleries in Europe such as Tate Britain, Saatchi Gallery London and Photographer’s Gallery London. He has also received several awards and published three books.

 

Sources:

Family-photographers photographing their families

Williams, V., 1994. Who’s looking at the family? London: Barbican Art Gallery.

James Hyman Gallery, n.d. Paul Reas[online][viewed 19 February 2015]. Available from: http://www.jameshymangallery.com/artists/17200/biography/paul-reas

Staff Directory[online][viewed 19 February 2015]. Available from: http://staff.southwales.ac.uk/users/6813-preas01

Andreasson, 2014. Paul Rea’S best shot: a dad buying army wallpaper for his son[online][viewed 19 February 2015]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/12/paul-reas-best-shot-dad-army-wallpaper

 

 

 

Erwin Wurm

http://db-artmag.de/archiv/assets/images/192/54.jpg

 

Austrian Artist Erwin Wurm was born in 1954. He studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Austria.

Worm works with a mix of sculptures and performance art.

An ongoing project of his is “One minute sculptures“ for which the artist or other ordinary people interacted with everyday items such as pencils, chairs or boxes. These interactions where then photographed. For this project Wurm also works with museums, he placed several white pedestals within rooms of other artwork. These had items like cleaning supplies, tennis balls or rubber bands on them and a little sketch of a person “using“ them. Visiors were encouraged to recreate what the drawings depicted. This element of participation is very vital for Wurm’s work. He questions what really makes an object a sculpture, how we perceive objects and what changes them from objects into sculptures. So in this project he says “people turn from subject to object“ by choosing to follow the “instructions“ and by participating (Wurm, 2014).

Clothes in general and Pullovers in particular have always been of interest to the artist. He used them for his project “Mind Bubbles“, for which he dressed up large potato like objects in them. Depending on the shape and the kind of pullover these scultures represent certain personalities, psychological conditions or philosophical moments (xavierhufkens, 2007).

Also in “59 Positions“, 1992, a video in which Wurm dresses himself in a series of pullovers. In this artwork the human body meets the shell of the clothing, it is defined by it.

Erwin Wurm has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world and appeared in many magazine and newspaper articles.

 

Sources:

Artnet, n.d. Erwin Wurm[online][viewed 1 March 2015]. Available from: http://www.artnet.com/artists/erwin-wurm/

DB Artmag, n.d. Artcouture[online][viewed 1 March 2015]. Available from: http://db-artmag.de/archiv/2004/d/2/1/192-4.html

‪Ausstellungsfilm “Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures”, 2014 [online][viewed 1 March 2015].Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDL5NVXwBFI Open Eye Gallery, 2012. Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures[online][viewed 1 March 2015]. Available from: http://www.openeye.org.uk/archive-exhibition/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures/

Sami Parkkinen

Sami Parkkinen is a Finnish artist born in 1974.

Parkkinen mostly deals with the relationship of humans and nature. He realizes how we exploit nature for our own advantage and how we know about our “bad behaviour“ but can’t seem to get away from it. His work then creates visions of how a better world might look like (Parkkinen, 2012).

The image “Arvi“, 2014 from the series Father and Son is what applies most to my project. It depicts the photographer’s son in his father’s big, blue winter coat. It is shot in natural light which illuminates the boy’s face.

This is not only a exploration of the father son relationship but also a example of how clothes carry a meaning. Clothes almost have their own identities, they imply certain values, remind of certain people and give a idea of the owner’s social status. They tell us a lot of the people who wear them or own them.

We only know that this boy is wearing someone else’s coat because of his face, which looks very young and the scale of the coat in comparison to his head. The lower body which would give us more indications of the inconsitency between the coat and its weares has not been included in the photograph. But although the coat is to big for him Ari weirdly does not look out of place. His eyes and shirt harmonise with the color of the garment and make it seem as though everything is exactly supposed to be how it is.

The child himself looks as though he sees himself in the mirror and is very surprised how well he can play the role of his father.

Additional to photography Parkkinen also made two short films: “I want the world to stop“ and „Adventures of the lonely wolf“.

Sami Parkkinen has won several awards for his work and it has been shown mainly in Finland and Russia.

His latest achievement is being exhibitioned within the Taylor Wessing Prize in the National Portrait Gallery.

 

Parkinnen, S., 2012. Sami Parkinnen[online][viewed 24 February 2015]. Available from: http://www.samiparkkinen.com/biography.php

 

Danny Treacy

 

http://www.dannytreacy.com/them/index2.php

Danny Treacy was born in Manchester in 1975.

He received a BA (Hons) in Editorial Photography from the University of Brighton and a MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art in London.

The artist’s most famous work is probably “Them“, 2005. For this series he makes costumes out of collected clothing and then photgraphs himself wearing them. The clothes are all found and look like they one have belonged to very different kinds of people. Treacy then takes them apart and creates new outifts which look very individual and unusual since he mixes women’s and men’s clothes, miss-matches shoes and plays with textures. This is something that makes the finished photographs almost scary and a bit ghost like. Although the artist is a man we can’t see that in his images, we can’t place that being, we don’t know of which color, gender or culture the subject is from (Blue Sky Gallery, 2010). We can’t even determine if it is a human.

Danny Treacy makes a statement about the meaning in the clothes we all wear everyday. They are incredibly convertible and through different combination can create new meaning, although a single piece of clothing can carry an incredible amount of information. It might for example have something solitary or sexual about it. Treacy is fascinated with the idea that by wearing that item he might be in the same state as its original wearer and that he can thereby “slip into another person’s space“ but in a different way (Treacy, 2011).

To some Treacy’s photographs might seem like self-portraits but Treacy says that he “disapears in the final image, not revealing anything of [himself]“ (Treacy, n.d.).

Danny Treacy has been shown in over 20 single and group exhitions in Europe and the US and published two books. He also received several awards.

 

Milim Gallery, n.d. Danny Treacy [online][viewed 20 February 2015]. Available from: http://www.milimgallery.com/photographer.php?id=paa26bemqmt

The Photographer’s Gallery, 2008. Danny Treacy: Them[online][viewed 20 February 2015]. Available from: http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/3180/Danny-Treacy-Them/1265

Blue Sky Gallery, 2010. Danny Treacy[online][viewed 20 February 2015]. Available from: http://www.blueskygallery.org/exhibition/danny-treacy/#1

Danny Treacy, 2011 [online][viewed 20 February 2015]. Available from: https://vimeo.com/18619346