Midday at the Museum: Battle For The Zimmerli

It twas a rainy October Day. I ventured out to the fabled Zimmerli Museum in search of knowledge and power. I chose this venue primarily for the soviet photography exhibition, which displayed a lot of social documentary themes. I am very much interested in the way documentary photography can capture so much emotional texture that isn’t staged or posed and depicts real life all at the same time. I study the framing of the images, what was left in the frame and what subject matter works best. I hope to use this information as a guideline when I begin to work on my thesis.

The first artist I look at is Boris Mikhailov. He is known as being the founder of Soviet Conceptual Photography. I can relate a lot to his work in the sense that he is interested in people and the things they do. I am always interested in what people are doing when they are living out their daily lives in public places. The nervous ticks that they try to hide, the nonchalant butt-scratch or nose pick, and the crazy bag lady that just spews out nonsense to herself. Witnessing these moments I then think to myself, what is actually going on in their minds? Are they having a good day, do they hate their marriage and wish they could find someone younger and less controlling... or are they thinking, “ Why the hell is that guy staring at me?”

His photos, in some way, capture this essence of “wanting to know more”. I really like how he chooses images that document the passage of time that are then transformed into artistic renditions of those documents. Two images that resonate in my mind are from his superimposition series.

I like how, through the use of superimposing, he creates a kind of painterly photo collage that seem very surreal and dreamlike. It is almost as if he is combining social life with commodities and objects creating an abstract reality that blurs that line that differentiates painting and photography. I like this series more so than his other ones because it is more artistic and abstract at the same time. This is something I am very much interested in experimenting with for my thesis.

Next on the menu is the work of photographer Valdimir Kupriyanov. I am just amazed at how almost every artist I have seen has had at least some kind of aspect that interests me greatly. In this case its how Vladimir claims to have been interested in photography because of its “objectivity”. What he means by this is that photographs both have the special ability to show reality as it is in all its materiality, and also show its distinction between paintings in a non-subjective way. After I read that I gasped and whispered to myself, “I think I just found the basis to my artist statement and thesis. Laugh Out Loud. I really like his series entitled, BELOGORODSKAYA Region 1983-85. The way they are arranged in diptychs reminds me of a cinematic feeling you would get when you would look into those portable movie players that you had to put your head over it and look through the viewfinder.

The two images seem to be slightly complimentary with each other but from different aspects or point of views. This reminds me of my own work in which I also displayed my images in a diptych creating a dueling sense of emotions. I then added sound to the images that I created myself from what I was experiencing from the images.

Moving along in the gallery you come upon the work of Fransico Infante. I am very much interested in the group he started with his wife called ARGO, which occupied them with creating kinetic art and artificial environments. Especially in the concept, that was conceived in this collaboration, “artifact”. The whole explanation of what an “artifact” is interests me greatly- which is a thing made by a person and thus autonomous in the relation to nature. Such an object interacts with nature, at the same time revealing itself.” After I read that I kind of had an understanding of what “artifact” meant, but then I kept reading on and was furthermore explained. “The exceptional importance of this momentary artistic event established the camera as a means and as a technical instrument, which allows the artist to fix chosen moments. Photography here is used to capture and convey the feeling of mystery and infinity of the world that rules the artists consciousness.” I know this is a lot to write from the wall text but this one paragraph really resonated in my mind and helped me understand where they were going with the photographs and also something I might try and achieve in my photography. I really liked how this is basically at first just a document of kinetic art or earthwork but through this momentary artistic event of photography the physical work can be conceived in a way that either fools the viewer or affects them. The ones that really achieve this greatly are these.

This one looks like it was just a regular picture of land water and the horizon line that someone has pasted a circular image on top of it. In actuality it is all real objects being captured in a way that makes them question your beliefs.

The last artist of the exhibition is quite possibly my most favorite. Alexander Slyusarev’s work is very close to what I want to achieve in part of my thesis project.

I really like how his images consist of normal everyday objects that through the use of shadows and light reflections create an abstract pattern that alters a viewer’s reality. This is inspiring me to actual focus on using the shadows and lights and reflections that are around the objects I photograph and use them to enhance the visual appearance of the image. I just love how they are so simple yet are filled with so much beauty from the abstract shapes that are created in the frame of the picture.

Even though it was a small exhibit with only four photographers, each one had their own specific style of creating photographs that I will take in and put into my arsenal.