Door kunstvlo op
September 11, 2009 09:39.
20 comments
It is commonplace to state we are living in a visual world. We’re surrounded by images but we should ask ourselves to which degree we really understand them. For seeing them doesn’t mean we are able to read them as well. What’s an image trying to tell us? What’s the (underlying) message? The medium that illustrates this perfectly is photography.
Although we have the illusion that a snapshot helps us to grasp a moment in time, reality most of the time gets completely distorted through the photographer’s lens. Photo-technology really makes fun of us here. What do we see? Pictures full of beautiful colors, touching sceneries and nice people. But why is it often so different in our recollection? Our past in pictures is usually a lot more vived and spectacular than we have experienced it in real life.
A great example in this respect is the work of photographer William Egglestone. Egglestone is known for the photographs he took in the 1960s and 1970s and for his use of bright colours. Consequently, his pictures of American daily life often emanate a kind of nostalgic sweet atmosphere but this is deceiving. When you try to look further his works very quickly lose their idyllic character and feelings of discord and isolation arise instead. The same desolation you can find in paintings of Edward Hopper.
The key concept here is ‘visual literacy’, i.e. the ability to look at images, to analyse, interpret and evalute them critically. In future posts I’ll get back to this and try to explain how you can help your viewers to improve their visual literacy.
For what you see is not always what you get.
tagged: the guide, learning tools, visual literacy, william egglestone, photography, edward hopper
Door kunstvlo op
September 10, 2009 10:16.
23 comments
Getting your message across. Doing it in the most beautiful and striking way. That’s what an artist wants. Mario Cacciottolo’s Someone Once Told Me is a wonderful example of this urge using photography and the internet.
Like a lot of succesful things, the basic idea is simple. You are asked to write down a line someone once told you. The next step is to take a black and white photograph of yourself holding the plate with words in your hands and to send it to the Someone Once Told Me platform. Mario collects and selects the photographs and also makes them himself. For the record: he says to use the platform to improve his personal photographing skills.
This project, that started off in 2006, has become a really fascinating art project that succesfully integrates art and technology. It is especially intriguing because it involves people in everyday life situations. You and me: all ordinary and at the same time exceptional. This video gives a nice round-up.
tagged: the guide, sotm, art project, literature, photography, mario cacciottolo, everyday life
Door kunstvlo op
September 07, 2009 11:29.
13 comments
What makes you an artist? Splendid ideas? Genius? Sure, but most of all you need guts and faith. This thought repeatedly crossed my mind the last few days. The immediate cause for my musing was the Sophie Calle exposition that I saw in Brussels, Bozar last week.
Sophie Calle (°1953) is a French artist, who uses a diversity of media in her work that is largely autobiographical. As a writer and a photographer she tries to capture sceneries from everyday life. Her work doesn’t merely consist of observations and interpretations. She manipulates and creates new realities of her own.
Like for example when she decides to be a private investigator and starts following someone in the street (ad random), writes down what he does and documents his moves with photographs. Or when she takes a job as a chambermaid and goes through the personal affairs of hotel guests, takes photos and tries to imagine what kind of people they are.
Calle’s ideas are not that world-shaking. On the contrary, to me (and you?) they even sound familiar: I guess once in a while we all wonder about how other people live their lives, how they succeed and fail.
The difference between Calle and a lot of us is that she takes her thinking one step further. When our rational minds tell us to ‘get real’, her artist mind tells her to begin her journey.
Joseph Beuys has said we’re all artists but we are not. You can only be one when you are capable of letting the mainstream interpretation of rational reality go. Can you do that? Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to make this kind of sacrifice? Probably not.
A real artist will and that’s why we should admire and cherish her or him. Sophie Calle has done it in an exceptional and fascinating way. Hurry up: go to Brussels this week and visit a wonderful exposition in Bozar. Until the 13th of September.
tagged: the artist, bozar, brussels, sophie calle, beuys, photography, writer
