Newest Photomontages

Above are some of my newest Photomontages, from the project "The Photograph as Contemporary Art" only another 100 and something images to put together! New works all copyright, Melinda Gibson 2010.

Osang Gwon

The images above are by Osang Gwon titled, from top to bottom, “Unbearable heaviness, 1999” and “Meaningless emission, 2000.”  These pieces are photographic sculptures that have been composed by what appears to be photographs of the objects or subjects then pieced, glued and varnished together. They seem to be life size and his work often incorporates people, which I have chosen not to show as I really don’t like those, nor or they appropriate for my new body of work. 

My new body of work will revolve around making objects out of photographs in a similar way to which Gwon and Demand do. I need to start testing my theories out and see if what I anticipate to work will in fact do just that. What interests me is that each object I recreate will be an original and they will be deconstructed from the mass manufacture, which they were designed to excel in. Each object will be unperfected with unique folds, joins and gaps no one will ever be the same. This new body of work will try to question societies need for monotony, where we feel more comfort in knowing that we have the same as someone else.

http://www.osang.net/index.html

CCCS

I came across this gallery, The Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzine while reading an article in Frieze and looked into their last show titled, “Manipulating Reality” which put together 23 photographic/ video artists who all approach the idea of reality in differing ways. The show used photography as a tool and presented questions about reality in today’s images. Artists shown where the likes of Thomas Demand, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Pickering, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin as well as Osang Gwon whose work has particular interest to me as I start to undertake a new project. This is something which I will later discuss. 

Having looked into the gallery some more I have found that they have another wonderful show on at the moment which is, “Gerhard Richter and the disappearance of the image in Contemporary Art.” This show as the gallery puts it, “hosts a selection of works by Gerhard Richter, one of the best-known and most sought-after living painters, placed in dialogue with works by seven international contemporary artists, who all share Richter’s profound distrust of the image as a guarantee of truth.”

The show runs from 20th February - 25th April 2010 and the participating artists are Lorenzo Banci, Marc Breslin, Antony Gormley, Roger Hiorns, Xie Nanxing, Scott Short and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Image is an installation shot taken from "Manipulating Reality" at http://www.strozzina.org/e_index.htm

Fox, Leonard, Ristelhueber or Wylie?

Yesterday I went and visited the Photographer’s Gallery to see the new Deutsche Borse Photography Prize that opened on Friday. After hearing this years nominations I was very keen to see the exhibition before the winner was announced, I wanted an unbiased view.

Before visiting I read a rather damning report in the Guardian by Adrian Searle, on 9th February stating that the prize itself is suffering due to the gallery’s move as the artists are,

“……barely given enough space to mount significant displays. The Photographers' Gallery, which moved to a building off London's Oxford Street two years ago, closes this summer for a major rebuild. This is desperately needed if the prize, which has been running since 1996, is to retain its status and credibility. Just as importantly, it needs to generate a show worth looking at.”

This was something that also interested me greatly and must admit, I did find myself agreeing with. The new space at the Photographer’s Gallery lacks that warm and soul the previous space had, which in turn I feel becomes problematic when, curating any new show, let alone a prize like this.

Having said that one artists work that stood out for me were the works by Sophie Ristelhueber. Exhibited alone on the ground floor, the works were given enough space to breath and invited us to ponder over the large-scale images of childhood memories and digitalised conflicts. These works left me with many questions surrounding modern day photojournalism and media representations of conflicts. Not only these, but posed questions to me about the truthfulness of such representations in our digitalised era. These works left me feeling uneasy and wanting more, which I did not get from the other nominees for these reasons I feel she is a worthy winner.

Images from top left to bottom right; Anna Fox "Hampshire Pram Race, 2006"  Zoe Leonard, "Income Tax, Rapid Divorce, 1999/2006" Sophie Ristelhueber, "Eleven Blowups #5, 2006" and Donovan Wylie, " The Maze Prison. Sterile, Phase 1. 2003."

Another sad day for Polaroid

Another sad day for Polaroid as the BJP releases news that Sotheby’s is planning to break up the renowned Polaroid Collection to sell more than 1200 of its prints. Below is the BJP article in full from 11th February 2010,

“Auction house Sotheby's has announced plans to sell more than 1200 prints from the Polaroid Collection this June, with images from Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, David Levinthal and Robert Frank among others.

The auction is slated to take place on 21 and 22 June. Visitors will be able to view the 1200 prints in a public exhibition planned to start six days before the auction. This will be the last time the Collection will be seen together.

The auction stems from the collapse of Polaroid last year after its parent company found itself embroiled in a Ponzi scheme. In August 2009, a Minnesota Bankruptcy Court approved the break-up and sale of the Polaroid Collection, which includes more than 16,000 instant images.

The collection was created in the late 1960s and comprises photographs and negatives from more than 1500 photographers including as Ansel Adams, William Wegman, Chuck Close, Lucas Samaras and Harry Callahan. In total, it holds more than 22,000 items, however, 6000 of these images are on loan with to the Paris-based Maison Europeenne de la Photographie and the Musee de l'Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Previously, Polaroid had estimated the collection to be worth $8.8m. The new owners were asking the court authorisation to proceed with the sale 'free and clear of all liens, claims, interests and encumbrances.'

The first 1200 Polaroid’s to be sold include more than 400 images by Ansel Adams, some worth as much as $500,000 - in the case of the "Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, 1944" Polaroid. In total, the auction is expected to fetch between $7.5m and $11.5m.

The auction house still has more than 10,000 images that haven't been catalogued yet. These Polaroid’s could become part of a second auction or be acquired by a Museum.”

Article taken from BJP, 11th February 2010 © Incisive Media Ltd. 2009 

 

John Baldessari

Another exhibition which was very inspirational was “Pure Beauty” by John Baldessari at the Tate Modern which closed on 10th January this year. 

Baldessari was born in 1931 and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is possibly one of the most important conceptual artists of our time, producing extraordinary work during the sixties and notably releasing a statement in a newspaper that he was to cremate all his artworks made between 1953-1966. Baldessari later went on to use found objects, film stills and photography to create some of the most recognised and celebrated photo-compositions.

This exhibition was incredible and of great interest to my practice, the blocking off, obscuring of subject matter with paint was very inspiring, providing invaluable research into one of pioneers of conceptual art. The films, sketches and text made me want to start experimenting more conceptually than ever before.

This exhibition at the Tate had been wonderfully curated and I thank them for showing the public how important conceptual art is, and hopefully will always be.

Images from top to bottom, Blockage (Yellow): With Tent and Sword Fight (Green) 2005
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Hitch-hiker (Splattered Blue) 1995
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York © John Baldessari

"Tabula Rasa"

John Stezaker’s new exhibition, “Tabula Rasa” at The approach opened last week and I am so excited about it. I will be taking a trip down to Bethnal Green very shortly to see his new works. Image above is Tabula Rasa I, 1978-9 (Collage, 27x21.5 cm) © John Stezaker.

Exhibition runs from 29^th January – 7^th March 2010, at 47 Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY.