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Dayanita Singh at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is the nation’s second largest museum. The photography department collects photographs from all points in history—giving the museum a very different concept of ‘modern photography’. The photography department displays seven to eleven exhibits a year that stay up anywhere from three to six months at a time. There are three distinct spaces in which photography is displayed within the museum. Every so often, the photography department has a turn to display exhibitions in spaces that are not specifically for photography. Currently on display in the Art Institute is Dayanita Singh’s Museum of Chance. Singh’s portfolio was acquired jointly by the photography and contemporary art divisions, so her work is displayed in a contemporary art space. 

Singh began her artistic career as a photojournalist. While she studied in school, she followed a man and photographed him for a final project. Then, in 1989, she was given an assignment by the London Times to photograph a eunuch in India. This is how Singh found Mona Ahmed, a eunuch that had been outcast from her society. After shooting the assignment, the two realized there had been a misunderstanding: Mona believed this was an assignment from the New York Times, not the London Times, and decided that, because she had family in London that would be offended and embarrassed because of her, she wanted the film destroyed. Singh respected this and let Mona watch as she burned the film. After some time, Mona felt so respected that she decided to let Singh do the project again.

This led to Singh’s Myself Mona Ahmed project, which was released in the form of a book in 2001. Instead of approaching this project as a photojournalist, she used the book as her medium. In this, Singh documented Mona and the friendship that had developed between she and Singh. Mona’s voice is very present in the book rather than Mona as seen by someone else.  

Because she was a photojournalist, Singh gave accordion books to her travel companions. Singh wanted to display her work in a different, unconventional way, so she got the idea to turn these books into large scale ‘museums’. She had furniture makers in New Delhi, where she lives, create these wooden museums. These structures hold, store, and display about 120 photographs and are complete with sets of tables and chairs, creating a space for the images to be seen and studied.

Although these museum structures were made to be transported, the Art Institute of Chicago went through a longer process to have them shipped from London to Chicago. Regulations for what can be exported from a country made it difficult to find a way to get these structures there. Some woods can not be exported from India, but luckily, Singh’s structures were just the right size, weight, and wood type to make it over the ocean. Because they were flown, the airplanes could regulate the temperature of the museums, keeping the photographs and structures in the right conditions.

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Catherine Edelman Class Discussion

What began as a normal class tour at the Catherine Edelman gallery, turned into something much more. “Don’t yawn” is the first thing Catherine Edelman said matter-of-factly as she sat on the sofa in front of our class. After that we were all wide awake and ready for what quickly became a raw, eye opening discussion. She began by telling us her story beginning with her arrival to Chicago to attend grad school at the Art Institute. She starting off as a metal smith but switched to photography. “You’re not meant to be an artist for a living. Be open to what is presented to you.” she said to us, her honesty is refreshing yet terrifying. It’s true, not everyone is good enough to be successful, and even those good enough aren’t able to work hard enough to gain their success. By age 25 she opened her gallery right after Grad school. Her original plan was to have it for 5 years then get hired by a museum and get her phd. She spent the summer getting to know curators and artists. Sadly galleries don’t come with employees and with little money she worked alone for 2 years then had someone working for her who commuted from his parents house. After that she had a friend who she said “married wealthy” so she would work in exchange for prints which worked out nicely for the both of them. 26 years of hard work, financial turbulence, and passion for what she was doing turned what began as a “5 year plan” into a majorly successful gallery and a career to be proud of. To sum up all I learned in one sentence would be impossible, not only do I look up to Edelman and her work ethic, but am inspired by how true she is to herself.

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Catherine Edelman Gallery

The gallery itself is beautiful, the space is located below street level and is a very open with clean lines. The artists and photography featured is all from current working artists who’s work leans more towards interesting political topics. The work by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison titled “Gautier’s Dream” was inspired by the writing and critic Théophile Gautier. These photos takes you back in time to a beautifully mysterious land. The ParkeHarrison’s have yet again created a body of work that brings back the “everyman” character who is in a way “played” by ParkeHarrison. These aren’t self portraits in a sense because they represent us as people. The images are in a work of make believe and imagination. Everything created by the artists themselves which too lends itself to the dreamy haziness of the work. The photos themselves have a secret “wash” over the top of them that literally blurs the line between imagination and reality. Parkeharrison himself said “Perhaps the only true hope for our world and our human spirit rests in our ability to imagine.” Their previous work has questioned the relationship between humans and the environment. This work does as well with the environmental destruction beyond the velvety curtain of the imagination and dreams of the human imagination. This work will make you question what is real and leave you staring at them in awe. “Gautier’s Dream” is intricate, breathtaking, and truly original.

“In fact, outside, beyond the velvety curtains and spangled chandeliers, we see the very the landscape he often tirelessly tries to rejuvenate and repair.” -Robert ParkeHarrison

Sources:

http://parkeharrison.com/gautier-s-dream

http://www.edelmangallery.com/home.htm

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Myself Mona Ahmed Book Review

Dayanita Singh’s earliest photographic series, Myself Mona Ahmed (1989–2001) is one of the most heart wrenching photographic tales. The book itself is a wonderful size, and meant to be sat down with and read. It’s simple and very beautiful, the opening page has an image (featured on next page) of Mona siting in a field with the caption “sitting in the jungle, I am complaining to Allah that the little joy I got in my life from Ayesha was also snatched away from me. 1999”. 

Mona Ahmed is a eunuch in Dayanita’s home country of India that the London Times sent her to make photographs of. As she shot all of her photos, Mona discovered that the photos weren’t for New York Times but for London, and she had family there so she demanded the film back. Respecting her wishes Dayanita gave her everything and watched her burn the entire project. Days later Mona contacted Dayanita and explained how much respect she has for her and told her she could begin shooting again. After that  a true friendship was born and years later this book was made. The images follow Mona’s tragically sad life from loosing her daughter, to living in a cemetery with her pets (her only friends). Soon after we are introduced to the animals she loves more than anything, we are jolted by images with text from Mona telling us she has lost all her animals. In very awful and gut wrenching ways.  

“I started to dislike humans so much that I started to adore animals and made my family of animals. I had one Doberman, one money, four rabbits, two dozen ducks. 1999”

While she was depressed and living her life with her animals they slowly got taken away from her. Her ducks were eaten, her Doberman stolen to sell, her money was poisoned, and her rabbit was eaten by cats. My heart aches for this woman, and this book has changed my outlook on life in some ways. Without the captions by Mona herself were not with the images they wouldn’t be as powerful. 

The books last page ties in the first with the quote “There’s peace in the jungle, but I still cannot find it in myself.  2000”  This would honestly have to be the most honest photo book I have ever read. The images don’t play up or play down anything, they’re just of Mona and every facet of her life. It’s heartbreaking, honest, and beautiful. The photos from this book are up in the Art Institute until June 1, 2014.

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Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood at the Museum of Contemporary Photography

Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood, the exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, features the work of nine different artists dealing with themes of motherhood. The show also explores the ways in which photography and motherhood cross paths as society moves into the digital age of photographing and sharing daily life with others. Susan Bright, the exhibition’s curator, writes, “What all of the artists in Home Truths also have in common is an exploration of the complex and demanding experience of motherhood and of the transitions that occur to a woman’s identity when she is becoming or being a mother.” 

As visitors enter the MoCP, they are greeted by Janine Antoni’s Inhabit, 2009—a powerful, large-scale print in which the mother becomes the connotation of home literally suspended within the denoted house. She is found in a child’s room, tied to their toys and bed while still tethered to all other aspects of the house. Her legs are enclosed in a dollhouse and form its strong, sturdy foundation. The mother’s soft, downward gaze keeps mindful watch over the happenings within her home. 

Although motherhood is a difficult yet rewarding job, some women are left with nothing more than a yearning for the role. Through her series, Annunciation, Elina Brotherus documents the void of not being able to have children throughout years of IVF treatments. Included are heartbreaking, evocative self-portraits and documentation of the process of and plethora of medications associated with IVF treatments. The images are displayed on a wall-mounted shelf within the gallery space; these framed photographs of her journey seemingly replace the family photographs that will never be displayed within the walls of her own home. 

Photographs from Fred Hüning’s books, Einer, Zwei, and Drei are also included in Home Truths. Hüning’s works cover the themes of love and loss, relating them back to how they are found in daily family life. His books document the experience of a mother and father when they lose a baby and the joy brought to them by having another. One of the images, Untitled (Runaway), 2011, depicts a small child clad in a gray shirt and neutral blue underpants as he runs away from the viewer. The slightly off-kilter horizon line gives the photograph a playful feel. A foot dips out of the river water and onto the muddy shore. Green grass sprouts along the river bank and on his path into the forest. The blond boy with bouncing curls is on his own imaginary mission. This is just one of many everyday moments that is cherished by mothers and parents.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography invites guests to spend this Mother’s Day in the midst of the works of Home Truths. On Sunday, May 11, 2014 from noon until 5pm, tea and cookies will be provided for those who visit the museum.

The must-see Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood will be on display at the MoCP until July 13, 2014.

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Catherine Edelman Gallery

Catherine Edelman, owner of Catherine Edelman Gallery, is a well-known art dealer in Chicago. Edelman opened her gallery at the age of twenty-five while she attended graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her original intent for opening the gallery was to gain recognition among museum curators in the area. In doing so, she hoped that after five years she could close her gallery’s doors and work in a museum as a curator. She spent time getting to know curators nationwide who introduced her to the artists whose work she sold. The gallery’s first year was about gaining publicity through press, its second year was about making a profit for the business. When the gallery’s fifth year approached, Edelman sought the advice of her mentor who helped her decide against closing the gallery. 

  Catherine Edelman Gallery is now very successful. What Edelman enjoys the most is the freedom that success affords her.  Because she works for herself, she gets to make her own creative decisions and pursue projects that she could not have done before. If a mistake is made, Edelman enjoys not having anyone above her to answer to—she can just acknowledge if there was a mistake made and move forward without disappointing other people. Edelman’s preferences shine through to the way her gallery works. For example, she only works for living artists because they need money while they are alive. With that being said, Edelman is not interested in art history. She loves to exhibit mixed media in her space. One of her main goals is to find ways in which to expand the market for art so that it does not remain focused on one thing.

Edelman has a strong belief in handling her own books and finances. She says businesses stay successful when they stay on top of their own books, rather than handing their books over to a third party. When she retires, she plans to “step out” and hand off gallery to her assistant, but she will still do her own books.

One of the biggest changes in the gallery scene since the Catherine Edelman Gallery opened has been the increased and widespread use of the internet. The gallery’s website was created in 2000. Before the age of the internet, Edelman relied heavily on trunk shows and art fairs in order to sell works. Today, however, most of the gallery’s sales are through its website and require very little direct contact. Although the gallery’s sales no longer depend on art fairs, Catherine Edelman Gallery is still represented at about four art fairs a year; this year in particular, the gallery is attending six of them.   

Catherine Edelman Gallery recently exhibited eight of the ten works included in Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison’s Gautier’s Dream. This body of work was inspired by Théophile Gautier, a French artist, writer, and critic. Their work is about the earth taking over and is used as a tool “to explore the fragile human condition, and the overarching shadow of environmental destruction,” according to the artists.¹

¹ Information found in the exhibition statement on Catherine Edelman Gallery’s website:

http://www.edelmangallery.com/exhibitions/2014/parkeharrison/parkeharrison2014.htm

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Vivian Maier: Out of Shadows

In 2007, John Maloof attended a storage locker auction—an event where buyers can bid on lockers for which rent payment has not been received. When it came to one particular unit, he could see from his quick look around that the unit contained photography supplies. Interested in using black and white images to illustrate a book he co-authored, he purchased the unit’s contents. After its purchase, Maloof discovered that this storage locker housed photographs and thousands of undeveloped negatives. As it turned out, the prints and negatives had belonged to woman named Vivian Maier— whom he searched for unsuccessfully. In 2009, Maloof found Maier’s obituary; she had died at 83 years old, just days before Maloof could find her.

Maier (1926 - 2009) was a live-in nanny in the Chicago area. One of her favorite hobbies was shooting street photography, self portraits, and other found occurrences with her Rolleiflex camera. Through this, Maier became a master of observation, capturing her findings. She found a way to document everyday happenings from an engaging perspective. Her private life and observations became documented on film that is now exposed to the world; her work, made throughout the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, is now getting the recognition it deserves.  

One of the photographs featured in the book and exhibit with the same title, Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows, is called “Central Park, New York c. 1951-1955”.This photograph captures a scene that features a couple sitting on a bench in Central Park. Maier happened upon this exquisite, naturally lit scene. She didn’t necessarily interact with the photograph’s subjects—a theme that seems to be consistent throughout her body of street photography.

“Wilmette, Illinois (Tomatoes on Window Sill), 1968” is another example of Maier’s strong grasp on capturing the beauty of natural lighting. This print exhibits a strong composition although it may not have been something she purposefully composed. Through found circumstances, Maier found aesthetically pleasing ways to capture situations the way she saw them.

Some people who knew Maier vaguely knew she took photographs, but she didn’t intentionally show her work to people. When the, now grown, children she had been a nanny for had her work shown to them, they were in awe. Although they had seen her with a camera, they had no idea just how talented she was when it came to photography. She has been deemed as one of the century’s master street photographers.

The extraordinary story of Maier’s work has become a topic of interest in the photography and art world as well as in the public eye. Since the uncovering of her secret archive, her work has been displayed in countless exhibits around the globe. In fact, so much interest has been generated that books, including Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams, and films like The Vivian Maier Mystery have been made to document her work and her archive’s story.

Fifty-one silver gelatin prints of Maier’s images are currently on display at the Harold Washington Library. This exhibit, titled Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows, is put on by Chicago Public Library’s Special Collections and Preservation Division and will run through September 28, 2014.

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André Kertész Presentation by Robert Gurbo

On April 3, 2014, Robert Gurbo gave a presentation about André Kertész to the Photography in Chicago Now classes at Columbia College Chicago. Gurbo discussed his own role as curator of the André Kertész estate as well as how he worked up to the position. Gurbo had received a book of Kertész’s work as a teenager and developed an affinity for the photographer’s work. He first met Kertész in 1978 while working on a project in New York City. From there, the two became friends and Gurbo made slides for Kertész’s lectures and built cabinets for his negatives. By the time Kertész passed away in 1985, Gurbo was organizing negatives and essentially running Kertész’s archive. 

Kertész’s archive is comprised of about 1,300 self portraits. This body of work is about his journey in context of his life. Kertész was born in raised in Budapest, Hungary where the arts were encouraged and thought of highly. In school, he and his classmates were taught through interactions with artists of different mediums. When he graduated, his mother gave him his first camera—a handheld, glass plate camera that made prints that were about 1 x 1.5 inches. He took mostly self-portraits and, in a time before self-timers, he had a machinist install a device on his camera that would act as a self-timer. In his self-portraits, he watches the photo as it’s being taken; many times this means he is looking at the other subjects in the frame. 

In his adult life, Kertész moved to Paris and, by 1927, was the most sought after photojournalist there. In fact, he was so revered that journalists would have him take photographs before they determined the story they would write about the pieces. Later, Kertész and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to New York City to avoid the precursors of WWII. As he tried to find work in New York, he came to realize that with increased availability of cameras, the industry had changed. The case was now that Kertész’s work was too sentimental for editorial work. Alexander Liberman, a designer at Conde Nast Publications, provided him with work shooting architecture and interiors. While this type of work wasn’t ideal for Kertész, it was how he supported himself over the next seventeen years. Kertész made about 6,000 photographs through this opportunity.

Kertész’s overall body of work is both personal and nostalgic. His soft photographs tell stories of finding himself through his art. Ultimately, he became a master of composition and especially of timing. Kertész used his film wisely; it was rare that he would have trial and error shots on his contact sheets. He continued to make photographs throughout his life and, even in his last years, was featured in various exhibits.

Kertész’s “Raison d’Entre” body of work—originally part of The Concerned Photographer exhibit at Riverside Museum in 1967—is currently on display in Chicago’s Stephen Daiter Gallery (located at 230 West Superior Street, Fourth Floor). The exhibit runs through May 24, 2014.

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MCA and Character and Shape of Illuminated Things

Deemed “locally necessary and internationally recognized,” the Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Chicago, exhibits national and international artists as well as Chicago-based artists. The MCA was founded in 1967 and served predominantly as a gallery space. As more pieces were given as gifts and donations, it transitioned into more of a collecting facility. A bequest in the late 1980s gave the MCA’s collection a strong focus of conceptual photography. When the collection finally outgrew the original building in 1996, the MCA moved to its present location. The current building is approximately five times larger than the original building and gives space to display parts of the collection, show temporary exhibitions, as well as store parts of the collection that are not on display. In addition to more space for works, the current building is also home to the 296-seat Edlis Neeson Theater, Puck’s Café—a collaboration between the MCA and chef Wolfgang Puck, a nationally acclaimed gift store, and a plaza that brings contemporary works of art out into the public space in front of the museum.

Amanda Ross-Ho created the commissioned, sculpted pieces currently displayed in the MCA’s plaza. Her project, titled Character and Shape of Illuminated Things, highlights the use of the camera as a way to see the world. She wanted to create pieces that were self-aware to the fact that they would be photographed; this was another way for her to study the way people reflect them selves in the photographs they take. In an attempt to turn the plaza into a photography studio that uses the sun as a light source, Ross-Ho consulted a 1980s photography handbook, also called Character and Shape of Illuminated Things, by David Brooks. In this book were still-life photographs of a cube, sphere, and woman’s head that demonstrate the way light falls on subjects and the shadows that result from certain lighting scenarios. Ross-Ho decided to recreate the models she found in the images in the form of large-scale, eighteen percent gray sculptures. Additionally, she added a proportionately-sized color card—a tool used by photographers to guarantee accuracy of the color in a photograph. This card, usually removed from the photographer’s final shot, contaminates the photographs taken by MCA visitors and begs the question of what makes a good photograph in uncontrollable circumstances. 

By executing this project, Ross-Ho turned the practice of photography into a sculpture. Intending to demolish the steel-framed, fiberglass structures at the end of their run in the MCA plaza, Ross-Ho’s idea was to let Character and Shape of Illuminated Things live on only through the photographs captured by viewers. Once she had created the pieces, however, Ross-Ho grew attached and changed her plans to destruct all three. The new plan is to destruct the cube and sphere, but a man is purchasing the head to display at a winery in St. Louis.

Character and Shape of Illuminated Things will be removed from the Museum of Contemporary Art’s plaza on April 20, 2014.

(Above are the original photographs found in David Brooks' handbook.)

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Fractured: North Dakota’s Oil Boom

Fractured: North Dakota’s Oil Boom, a collaboration between photographer Terry Evans and journalist Elizabeth Farnsworth, is currently exhibited at the Field Museum. This presentation is the result of Evans and Farnsworth’s inclination to document and share what is happening to the prairies, residents, and oil workers of North Dakota due to the current oil boom in the Williston Basin region. 

When oil is not accessible by vertical drilling, oil companies must use horizontal drilling instead. First, however, in order to reach the oil, rocks deep beneath the earth’s surface must be fractured by pressurized liquids. This method, referred to as ‘fracking’, is the source of many issues and disputes among upset residents, oil companies, and those concerned with resulting environmental impacts, safety, and health hazards. Over a span of seven self-funded trips to North Dakota, Evans and Farnsworth documented changes in the landscape as well as the stories of those adversely affected, benefitting locals, and those who came seeking work. Each side of the story is highlighted on a different wall within the exhibition space, breaking down the complicated issues surrounding North Dakota’s oil boom for the viewer. 

One woman featured in Evans’ photographs is Brenda Jorgenson, a local farmer whose land was overtaken by an oil pad. Due to this, she and her family were disrupted by noises and the infiltration of natural gases into their home. A pipeline was stretched across their land in order to transport oil, ruining the trees and scarring the land. Since, Jorgenson has become an outspoken activist against oil drilling and fracking.

On the other hand, there are people like Edyth Pladson who have greatly benefitted from the oil boom. This ninety-six year old retired school teacher grew up poor, but since oil was found on her ranch, she receives royalties from wells on her land.

At the Field Museum, Fractured: North Dakota’s Oil Boom is off to the side within a larger exhibit, giving the viewer a feeling of intimacy and illustrating the fact that fracking is happening so close to home for many of North Dakota’s residents. In some cases, oil pads are located on the property of residents due to the legalities of mineral rights. In these cases, mineral rights belong to oil companies while property owners only have land rights, meaning that oil companies can legally set up and run oil pads on residents’ land. This seriously encroaches upon these families’ ways of life.

The exhibition features an installation piece in the form of a porch to help shape an idea of the proximity between oil pads and home life for North Dakota residents. Exhibition-goers are welcomed to sit and relax as if this were their own porch. Their view is, indirectly, the prairie of North Dakota, made visible through the work of Evans and Farnsworth.

Although Fractured: North Dakota’s Oil Boom is currently on display at the Field Museum, the show was created with the intention of traveling to the North Dakota Museum of Art and other small towns at the end of its run in Chicago. With this in mind before the presentation’s production, Evans and Farnsworth made the conscious decision to construct the works so that they could be easily transported. As a result, the photographic prints are mounted on a masonite-like material and laminated to emulate the look of glass or plexiglass.

It is highly recommended to see this informative and thought-provoking exhibit while it is still on display at the Field Museum through July 20, 2014.

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RISK: Empathy, Art and Social Practice

RISK: Empathy, Art and Social Practice is an exhibit unlike any other. It not only engages the viewers in the exhibit itself, but brings in the public and those from all walks of life. There are many poetic moments in this space that tie together to create a really engaging environment. Amy M. Mooney the curator who gave the tour explained that in the space created by Alberto Aguilar, strangers are invited to have lunch together twice a week. These strangers are found many ways, some on craigslist or even the train. The space is intimate yet spacious with the mirrors on the wall. The gold paint was chosen by the artist because of someone he knows love for the color.

To the left of Aguilar’s instillation is Fereshteh Toosi’s intriguing body of work. At first glance the steamed up glass box, multiple jars of garlic, and books on the shelf looked like something never seen before in a gallery. The steamed up glass box held books with mushrooms growing in and around them. These books are filled with ideas that are no longer apart of our society. One could call them books filled with dead words. Growing on these books is new life, something useful made on something that is now useless. The jars filled with pickled garlic comments on how our society is obsessed with freshness, but don’t worry about the waste that goes with it. Pickling garlic is buying something fresh, yet making it something to save for the future.

Cecil McDonald Jr held a dance party were house music was played. Photos and video was taken to display in the space. A video with head phones stands next to 4 photos edited to depict the state of trance  house music puts people in. Out of the box and sticks with you are phrases that sum up this show. It is viewable in the Glass Curtain Gallery until April 26, 2014 and admission is free.

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We All We Got

“That’s the power of photography, you can let your imagination run wild, and almost dream.” That’s the first thing Carlos Javier Ortiz said during his talk about the work from his book “We all we got”. He began shooting gun violence in Chicago and Philadelphia before it was blasted all over the news. 2006 is when this project began and would span 8 years before it’s completion. These photos are beautiful documentations of heartbreak, loss, and community. Described as a work about memory and displacement Ortiz takes us into the lives of mothers, fathers, children and friends who face war everyday.

This work is art for a reason, an astonishing use of talent, compassion, and strive for making a difference combine to create a body of work 8 years in the making. Documentary photography is by some not considered art, however these photographs are. Haunting and real, the truth for once one could argue. We never an image looking down at the subject, reminding us that we’re all apart of this world together. Violence is close to everyone’s home. A photo that really stuck with me is one of a family decorating a Christmas tree in honor of “Nugget” who was murdered a few years prior. The family was able to move out of the neighborhood and keep going with their lives, but remember her every step of the way. The people in these photographs are knocked down everyday, but they always get back up and keep going. Photographs of protest, murals, and numerous mementos honoring those who have been lost, created by those still fighting to live are the strongest images. 

The book itself is no larger than an ipad. Intended to be carried around and shared with everyone. When the viewer unfolds the book flat one photo spans both pages of the book. Giving one time with each image. Letters from those who have lost loved ones and interviews follow the photos at the end of the book. Having the photos without overwhelming text gives one time to have a moment with the image and not rushing to read the story. Following the letters and interviews will be clips from Ortiz’s notebook and things he’d found along his way. Finally the last page will have a fold out with all of the names of people who had been murdered, with a page of photos. We all we got is available for pre order by contacting the artist via email at [email protected]. 

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Archive State at MoCP

Appropriation of others’ art is not uncommon in the fine art realm. However, when the appropriated work is photographs of families on vacations, videos young men posted to YouTube, and surveillance footage, the issue becomes even more complicated. Although the artist appropriating the work had access to these images and footage, is there an ethical line drawn between what should and should not be used? Archive State, the current exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, is comprised of the projects of several artists who recontextualize the work of amateurs, compile images and video, display it in the gallery, and call it theirs. 

Thomas Sauvin’s Beijing Silvermine is a collection of photographs that were scanned from color negatives the original creators intended to recycle. Sauvin visits a Beijing recycling center monthly and purchases the negatives for the price of the silver they contain. He then scans the negatives to transfer them into digital images and adds them to his digital archive. These images are snapshots of children, families, accomplishments and new purchases, birthdays, and family vacations. Neither the photographers nor the subjects have given Sauvin permission to use or display their photographs, yet they have been used and can be found in the MoCP.

Another project on display is Found Photos in Detroit, a collaboration between Arianna Arcara and Luca Santese that is a selection of two hundred personal and institutional photographs and documents that were collected in Detroit, Michigan. The artists originally visited Detroit to document the city through making photographs. However, they found that they could use the abandoned photographs and documents they found to depict the city. These snapshots, mug shots, crime scenes, and notes provide not only an inside look at life in Detroit, but critique Detroit’s lack of the right of privacy as provided by the city.

In Images from the Secret Stasi Archives, Simon Menner shows the art world a selection of images from the now public archive of the former German Democratic Republic’s State Security Service (STASI). This project is comprised of surveillance footage, Polaroid pictures taken during secret house searches, spies spying on spies, and even images from handbooks on how agents should disguise themselves. These images offer a different view of the way the government views and goes about viewing their own people.

  Akram Zaatari’s Dance to the End of Love is a four-channel video installation of footage found on YouTube and other social networking sites. These pieces give insight to the way these young Arabs live through the cultural and political conditions of their countries as well as the way they choose to present themselves to the world. Zaatari states “Dance to the End of Love is as much about magic, dance, and singing as it is about loneliness of the oppressed and the hundreds of thousands of people that seek to act as heroes for the computer screen.”

David Oresick’s Soldiers in Their Youth is a compilation of footage of young American soldiers coming home, recounting disturbing events, showing how they spend down-time, and how they have been affected by partaking in war. This video installation is a view of how we look at war, specifically the war in Iraq, and how the soldiers involved with the war chose to display themselves as American soldiers.

In Archive State editors become artists. They are most apparent and present in their various projects through the way they select and display the pieces they have included. These projects say a great deal about people, communities, and the societies they live in through the way they choose to portray themselves. The subjects have no power over the way they have been portrayed in the projects they unwillingly became part of. The found work in Archive State becomes a visual representation of the private lives of people that were not meant to be exposed and viewed by large audiences. 

Archive State will be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography through April 6, 2014.

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The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus

The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus is a collaboration between photographer Rob Hornstra and journalist Arnold van Bruggen, both of the Netherlands. They first developed and interest in the Caucasus Region in 2007 and finally traveled to Sochi in 2009. They have taken eleven trips to Sochi over the past five years in order to tell the story of the area through images and text. The Sochi Project is crowdsourced, meaning that it is entirely funded by grants and private donations. This ensures that the creators have creative freedom over the way they tell Sochi’s story. 

Much of The Sochi Project is printed on newspaper with the image and text together on the same page. As DePaul Art Museum’s assistant curator, Greg Harris, explains it, they didn’t want people to focus of the aesthetic of art, but rather, by using a rough format of newspaper, viewers would focus on the work and story. The Dutch duo hired a designer to help push their work further. They also partnered with Aperture to  make self-published books to help bring more attention to their project.

The Sochi Project tells the story of Sochi, Russia—a subtropical vacation spot with beachside resorts and many sanatoriums (day spas) that was plagued with poverty before the Olympics. However, a very different story has been painted by news coverage; About fifty billion dollars were spent funding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi—much of which was embezzled by contractors and others whose workers were not compensated for building structures for the Olympics. Through portraits, The Sochi Project tells the stories of those who lived in Sochi before the Olympics—it tells the side of the story left unseen by the masses.

The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus is currently exhibited at DePaul Art Museum and will run through March 23, 2014.

[chicagophotographyblog]

Chicago Style Exhibit at David Weinberg Gallery

This past week, we took a trip to the David Weinberg Gallery to view the exhibit “Chicago Style.” This show is comprised of 33 artists’ works and 68 pieces are included. According to curator Matthew Avignone, the vibe and energy that surrounds these pieces are what bring them together. This work was created in Chicago simultaneously; “Chicago Style” is a celebration of this. 

One of the artists included in the show is Megan Miller. Her works, “Shamrock Plant: Oxalis Triangularis” and “Peace Lily: Spathiphyllum Cochlearispathum,” are works that were created by putting plants into an enlarger and using them as negatives. The result is a color print of the way light passes through the plant. The concept of this body of work has to do with the way plants use photosynthesis to survive. By enlarging these plants, she says, it signifies their importance to us and our existence.

Another piece included in the show is that of the gallery owner, David Weinberg. In “Chapter 1, Plate 6,” Weinberg conveys the story of Mr. Wild, an old man, who does not speak to his neighbors, but wonders about the people that pass by his overgrown garden. Through a clear sheet of plastic, the viewer becomes Mr. Wild, and sees the outside world the way he would have.

“Chicago Style” includes many different styles that intrigue those who visit the gallery. David Weinberg Gallery is located in the River North District; “Chicago Style” ran through February 15th 2014.