Bridged

Cleal. R., (2016) Screen Print separation.gif 

Here is an example of my current working practice whereby I am concerned with the questions of representation and reproduction in photography. The image is a flattened JPEG of a 10 colour screen print separation. The colours used in the print are in no way representative of the colour in the original photograph but once printed clearly represent the organic nature of the image.

In my working practice I intend to explore the dichotomy between representation and reproduction in photography, I intend to do this through an exploration of existing and future technical reproduction techniques beginning with screen print.

Josh klien ~ Cost of Living (Aleyda)

 

Klien. J., Cost Of Living (Ayeyda) 3D printed sculpture, Photographed by Eric Halgas (2016)

In a recent article by Ben Lerner in The New Yorker (2016) about the Whitney’s replication committee Lerner gives account of the adjacent pictured 3D printed sculpture by Josh Klien, it is part of a series of printed sculptures made by Kline where he interviewed and scanned real janitors and subsequently made these 3D printed sculptures from the scans. The interesting point made in Lerner’s article is that the resolution of the scans are to large for current 3D printing technologies to reproduce so the existing sculptures are set to be replaced once the new print technologies are available at some unknown point in the future. Lerner quotes Klein’s explanation of this as being a ‘resolution gap.’ (2016)

Indeed this work has significant bearing on my research as it directly challenges the notions of authorship and temporality. Is the artwork in fact the data or the printed representation?

I will be using this example as a case study in my essay.

Lerner, B.,  2016, Working with the Whitney’s Replication Committee, The New Yorker [Online] Available from: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/the-custodians-onward-and-upward-with-the-arts-ben-lerner [Accessed 7th Jan 2016]

Barbara Bolt ~ Art Beyond Representation

 

Bolt. B. 2010 (Book cover)

Bolt opens this investigation into art beyond representation with a particularly poignant statement which resonates loudly with regards my research: ‘Art is a representational practice and its products are representations’ (2010). Upon reading this I quickly scanned and printed out the first 2 chapters of this book in order to be freely able to annotate as I read. The image shown here is one such page, I have been reading and gathering in this manner persistently over the course of the semester so far and have accumulated a substantial library of resources which I have been systematically adding to Sente so as to build a repository of searchable research.

Cleal.R. 2015 (photograph)

Here in this book I have been particularly drawn to some passages on page 15 & 16 where Bolt draws upon Latour to arguing that there exists two distinct regimes of representation

‘The “re” of representation suggests that to represent, is to present again. In his article ‘Visualization and Social Reproduction’ (1988a), Latour claims that, in western culture there have existed two vastly different regimes of representation. In the first regime-a regime that he relates to early Christian and medieval understandings of representation-the re-presentation is presented anew as if for the first time. It involves presenting again and anew. In the second regime, which he equates with Cartesian understandings of representation, the representation stands in the place of an absent object.'(Bolt 2010)

I will be using this quote as a grounding to the theoretical part of my essay.

Bolt, B., 2010, Art beyond representation: The performative power of the image, IB Tauris, London

Latour, B. (1988a) ‘Visualization and Social Reproduction’, in G. Fyfe and J.Law (eds) Picturing Power: Visual Depiction and Social Relations, London: Routledge: 15-38.

Thoughts on moving forwards

Cleal. R., (2016) Diagram on paper

So today I drew a Venn Diagram, its kind on naff but I think it illustrates my current thoughts on my pathway through this MA in a fairly succinct way. I intend to build upon these ideas in order to plan my oral presentation and map out the research I wish to undertake throughout the course of this MA.

Yves Klein ~ Anthropometries

 

This is an interesting discussion of Yeves Klien’s Anthropometries. As I have already looked at Klien’s previous performance based photographic montages, this work broadens my understanding of the challenging nature of Klien’s work.

Tate. (2013) TateShots: Yves Klein – Anthropometries. [online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj9nHa7FtQQ [Accessed 29th Dec 2015]

The Painting of Modern Life

I came across the exhibition catalog for The painting of modern life: 1960s to now whilst researching  in the library today. The exhibition was held at the Hayward Gallery, London 2007 and later installed at the Castello di Rivoli, Museeum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy in 2008. Featuring 22 artist painters whose work deals with representation in modern life the exhibition presents an interesting framework from which to explore my research aims and objectives. (2007)

The 22 artists featured in the exhibition work with the ideas of figurative realism. The works of particular interest to me are the ones which are photographically derived, these include: Gerhard Richter

Eberhard Havekost

Havekost, E., (2003) National Geographic [Oil on canvas] 110 x 130cm

Richard Hamilton

Hamilton, R,. (1968-69) Swinging London 67, Acrylic, collage and aluminium on canvas, 67.3 x 85.1cm

Vija Clemins

Clemins, V,. (1966) Explosion at Sea, oil on canvas, 34.3 x 59.7cm

And  of course Andy Warhol

Warhol, A,. (1963) Orange Car Crash (Orange Disaster)(5 Deaths 11 Times in Orange) Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linin, 220x210cm

This is a great staring point for further research into these artists with regards their particular works relating to photographically derived image sources. There is also a number of interesting essays in the opening section of the book which I will read and make account of later.

Rugoff, R., Hancock, C., McCracken, S., Christov-Bakargiev, C., di Rivoli, C. & Gallery, H., 2007, The painting of modern life: 1960s to now, Hayward Publishing, London.

Vilém Flusser on History, Science & the Photograph

This is an interesting short video of Vilém Flusser speaking in an interview with Miklós Peternák on 17th October 1991 about the history of knowledge the consequence of the arrival of photography.

languagevirus. (2009) Vilém Flusser on History, Science & the Photograph. [Online Video] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lUhFpdw8YQ [Accessed 19th Dec 2015] 

Daniel Rubinstein ~ What is 21st Century Photography?

Screen grab. Photographers Gallery Blog [2015]

This post on the Photographer’ Gallery blog is an incredibly interesting and timely piece of writing by the course leader of MA Photography at Central Saint Martins and editor of the journal Philosophy of Photography, Dr Daniel Rubinstein.

http://thephotographersgalleryblog.org.uk/2015/07/03/what-is-21st-century-photography/

The issues raised here by Rubinstein demonstrate with articulation and clarity the feelings of many working in the medium of Photography in the 21st century. By drawing particular attention to the controversy surrounding photography’s perceived duty to uphold its representational nature in spite of the ever more pervasive new technologies of reproduction and distribution.

Here Rubinstein predicts a new future for photography, one based on data streams and algorithmic image distribution and actualisation. I think this is an article that I will draw upon for my essay in so much as it allows the discussion about documentation of recorded events as apposed to the live ‘real time’ event to encapsulate the new and future anxieties surrounding contemporary photography. The distribution of documented events after all is where my interests perhaps mostly lie.

Rubinstein Daniel (2015) The Photographers Gallery Blog: What is 21st Century Photography? [Online] Available from: http://thephotographersgalleryblog.org.uk/2015/07/03/what-is-21st-century-photography/ [Accessed 14th Dec 2015].

Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960

Ai Weiwei. Study of Perspective – Eiffel Tower. 1995-2003. Gelatin silver print. 38.9 x 59 cm.

Today I discovered information about an exhibition held at the MOMA in New York titled ‘Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960′ Organized by Roxana Marcoci, Curator, and Eva Respini, Associate Curator, Department of Photography. The Exhibition ran from January  28-May 9, 2011. On first discovering this exhibition I felt it to be of importance to my research, so I have been attempting to find out more and hopefully find a copy of the exhibition catalog somewhere, although so far this has proven quite tricky.

Rong Rong. East Village, Beijing, no. 81.1994. Gelatin silver print. 55.8 x 33.3 cm.

From what I can gather the exhibition featured 50 or so photographs taken from the MOMA collection and displayed singularly and also in series where appropriate. According to the website www.collectordaily.com the artists featured in the exhibition were Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Adler, Ai Weiwei, Matthew Barney, Gunter Brus, Robert Filliou, Lee Friedlander, Gilbert & George, Eikoh Hosoe, Huang Yan, George Maciunas, Ana Mendieta, Otto Muehl, Laurel Nakadate, Bruce Nauman, Hermann Nitsch, Adrian Piper, William Pope.L, Richard Prince, Arnulf Rainer, Robin Rhode, Rong Rong, Lucas Samaras, Rudolf Schwartzkogler, Cindy Sherman, Mieko Shiomi, Lorna Simpson, VALIE EXPORT, Ben Vautier and William Wegman. Whilst I am aware of a number of these artists I will most certainly need to look up the rest and begin to build a reference portfolio of artworks and artists working specifically in this field.

MOMA(2011) describes the exhibition on its website as such:

Performance art is generally experienced live, but what documents it and ensures its enduring life is, above all, photography. Yet photography plays a constitutive role, not merely a documentary one, when performance is staged expressly for the camera (often in the absence of an audience), and the images that result are recordings of an event but also autonomous works of art. The pictures in this exhibition, selected from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, exemplify the complex and varied uses artists have devised for photography in the field of performance since the 1960s.

Relating this back to my ‘Aims and Objectives’ statement it is clear this is an important exhibition with regards my specific field of research.

My project aim is to discover how the application of time based media effects the experience of timed events/live performance with regards the particular contrast between the real performance and its recorded equivalents? By investigating case studies and existing theoretical discourse already established in this field, I will evaluate the particular values of representation between our experience of the real and our experience of the made recording in order to inform my working practice.

Moving forwards I will continue to find out more about this specific exhibition whilst looking for other sources of primary research in this field. I will also look to investigate further a selection of the artists who exhibited in this show so as to bring about a deeper understanding of their relative contexts in their specific working practice. The three images I have chosen to display in this post, Ai Weiwei, Rong Rong & Matthew Barney perhaps sign post further research.

Matthew Barney. Drawing Restraint 9- Shimenawa 2005. Chromogenic colour print in self-lubricating plastic frame. 109.2 x 109.2 cm.

 

MOMA (2011) Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960, [online] Available from: http://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1087?locale=en [Accessed 23 November 2015]

Vincenzo Latronico, Frieze, Matter of Action,  [online] Available from: http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/matter-of-action/ [Accessed 23 November 2015]

Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic, Performance Art Through the Lens, January 26, 2011 [online] Available from: http://hyperallergic.com/17509/performance-art-lens/ [Accessed 23 November 2015]

Loring Knoblauch, Collector Daily, Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960 @MoMA, March 15, 2011,[online] Available from: https://collectordaily.com/staging-action-performance-in-photography-since-1960-moma/ [Accessed 23 November 2015]

The Haxan Cloak

Cleal, R,. (2013) Haxan Cloak 24

Cleal, R,. (2013) Haxan Cloak 12

These portraits I made of the musician and producer, Haxan Cloak, put me in mind of my recent research into the portraits made by Gerhard Richter. Richter. In Stefan Gronert’s 2006 book titled Gerhard Richter Portraits, Gronert references Ernst Buschors’s classical definitions of portraits and Richtor’s non conformity to such values in saying:

“Gerhard Richter’s portraits clearly refuse to be captured within the two classical alternitive catogories of “internal” or “External” portraits, as Ernst Bushor described the two poles of portrait representation more than fifty years ago. On the contrary, they are ‘picture portraits,” representations of pictures, which for their part claim to be classical portraits, but which disappoint the conventional expectation that they offer insight into an internal world belonging to the subject” (2006, 103-104)

I find this notion of the ‘picture portrait‘ fascinating, it puts me in mind of the writings of Baudrillard where he talks of the simulacra (1994) whilst at the same time I see scope with this picture portrait to begin to play around with presenting means of production and technological reproduction within the image as a contextual self referencing mechanism.

 

Baudrillard, J., 1994, Simulacra and simulation, University of Michigan press,.

Gronert, S. & Butin, H., 2006, Gerhard Richter : portraits, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern