N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A,
a blog about photography by Sofia Silva
Caption (image above): lumen on expired 120 ektachrome film (by Sofia Silva) More about Nobuhiro Nakanishi‘s work here. Nobuhiro Nakanishi: “The theme of my work is ‘the physical that permeates into the art piece.’ In a foggy landscape, we no longer see what we are usually able to see – the distance to the…
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Caption (image above): lumen on expired 4×5” ektachrome film (by Sofia Silva) More about Jacqueline Butler‘s work here. Jacqueline Butler: “Glass and Paper Landscapes evolved from a study of the collection of negatives and prints of the photographer and author Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) held in the Insight Photographic Archive at the National Media…
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Caption (image above): image of filter used for anthotype work (by Sofia Silva) More about Katie Kalkstein‘s work here. … More about Tina Rowe‘s work here. Tina Rowe: “This work in the baldest terms comes from a series of negatives that were found in a bin with other items related to photography. It seems…
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Caption (image above): lumen on expired agfa fiber bromide paper (by Sofia Silva) More about Almudena Romero‘s work here. Almudena Romero: “Growing Concerns uses plants from former British colonies as a canvas to host images that reflect on the links between plant trade, colonialism and migration, and the legacy of these in modern day…
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More of Timothy Nolan’s work here. In my current work, I start with handmade collages, combining photography of unique geological terrain, outdated scientific graphics, and Art Deco patterns. These are scanned, digitally and manually marked, cut, and re-collaged. The larger works are then printed on aluminum or vinyl (in the case of the recent wall…
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More of Jacob Burge’s work here. “Computers are quietly taking over as our main source of memory back up. Enabling us to store, display and edit our version of reality”, excerpt from Burge’s statement about Recall. … “Japan has got a lot of active volcanoes. The internet tells me there are about 110 of them,…
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image caption (above): © Soraya Vasconcelos, untitled, digital c-print, 122×163 cm, 2007. More of Soraya’s recent work can be seen here. Models of “territories” are constructed with organic matter and inorganic material: paint, pigments, varnishes, wax, plaster… There is a process of constructionIs it possible to formulate a general theory of artistic collaboration? And…
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caption (above): Susan Hiller, Sisters of Menon, 1972 -79. 4 L-shaped panels of automatic writing, blue pencil on A4 paper with typed labels Susan Hiller, Dedicated to the Unknown Artists, 1972-76. Installation view, Tate Britain, London. «In fact, Hiller herself has commented that what her archive includes are moments missed, fleeting encounters with a movement…
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© Hanne Darboven, Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983 (Cultural History 1880-1983), 1980-83. Installation view at Dia:Beacon, Beacon, New York. Lannan Foundation Bill Carke: You first saw Cultural History in 1996 at the Dia Art Foundation’s Chelsea space. Can you recall what your response to the work was back then and how it’s evolved since? Dan Adler: (Laughs) My…
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© Assaf Shaham, Untitled, from the series Time After Time and Again “The work Time after Time and Again deconstructs photography into its components and reassembles them on one surface that encompasses the essence of the photographic act, the fundamentals of color photography, and the marvel that combines light and time into a photograph.…
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“Nearly a decade later, Fillette would figure prominently in a photographic portrait of Bourgeois by Robert Mapplethorpe. The portrait, in which the (then-) seventy-year-old artist smiles mischievously for the camera while carrying the sculpture in the crook of her arm, was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art as the frontispiece to its catalogue for…
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caption (above): © João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva Terence Koh, God, 2007. View of the performance at de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich. Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin. Installation view of Terence Koh (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, January 19–May 27, 2007). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins © Hiroshi Sugimoto, Self-portrait, 2003 © Hiroshi…
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© Amirali Ghasemi, from the series Party, 2005 “In your sixth paragraph, you complain how there are no tweeted pictures, or pictures from social media sites. You do know you were coming to an art show, not a journalism conference. In art shows, one typically exhibits works by artists, not from tweeting citizens. When you…
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photo caption (above) © Eric Rondepierre, Couple, passant, 1996-98 © Eric Rondepierre, Confidence, 1996-98 © Eric Rondepierre, Le Voyeur, 1996-98 “That impossible photogram, as Roland Barthes said. An object which is not (even) an object, but at the same time is actually two objects. It doesn’t (really) belong to the cinema or (simply) to photography…
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photo caption (above) © Christian Boltanski, Odessa Monument, 1991. Four gelatin silver prints, lights and wiring “Since the late 1960s, Christian Boltanski (b. 1944, Paris) has worked with photographs collected from ordinary and often ephemeral sources, endowing the commonplace with significance. Rather than taking original photographs to use in his installations, he often finds and…
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“The theme of dehumanization was the subject matter of many works in a variety of media. None was clearer or more appropriate to the exhibition than Portrait, a video tape by Harmut Lerch and Claus Holtz which consists of 100,000 photographic portraits viewed consecutively at a gradually increasing rate, up to 20,000 faces per second.…
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© Hannah Villiger, Untitled, 1980 – C-print from Polaroid © Hannah Villiger, Sculptural, 1993 © Hannah Villiger, Untitled, 1980/81 – 12 C-prints of polaroids “When trying to describe physical feelings of any kind, we find ourselves shortchanged by language. I arrived at this conclusion after several, always hopelessly crude attempts to describe fundamental moments in…
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© Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Life Mixing, 1975 © Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Untitled, 1980 – a clear glass jar with lid containing 5 pieces of paper with type-written text and black string. © Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, from It’s Almost That, 1977 © Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Exilee, 1980 “From the mid-1970s until her…
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Abandoned, discarded, unwanted film is woven into handmade artefacts and photographic prints are created in the darkroom from constructed negatives. Time becomes an integral element, with each print or object measuring a duration of film. This recent work explores the materiality of photography and film in the digital age and creates a dialogue between the…
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© Moyra Davey, The Coffee Shop, The Library, 2011 25 C-prints, tape, postage, ink © Moyra Davey, Musik, 2010 © Moyra Davey, The Whites of Your Eyes (for Bill Horrigan), 2010 25 C-prints, tape, postage, ink © Moyra Davey, The Whites of Your Eyes (for Bill Horrigan), 2010 I’d say that these pictures are about…
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© Jean-Noël Pazzi, figure 5 – les cadavres exquis, from the project In(ter)vention © Jean-Noël Pazzi, forêt 6 – paysage, from the project In(ter)vention © Jean-Noël Pazzi, figure 3 – les cadavres exquis, from the project In(ter)vention “Ménager les site frappés de croyance comme indispensable territoire d’errement de l’esprit. Gilles Clément Manifeste du tiers paysage…
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@ Brendan George Ko, I used to love you, from Reminiscence, 2008-10 @ Brendan George Ko, We have a history, from Reminiscence, 2008-10 “And now I see what the glass door is. It is the door of a coffin-mine. Not a coffin, a sarcophagus. I am in an enormous vault, dead, and they are paying…
Read More© Wyne Veen, Modern Art © Wyne Veen, Plant Hair “My central theme is uselessness. I feel that life is ridiculous. The products and arrangements I show are a reflection of investments of time and effort by men. They show the development of our society just like the old 17th century famous Dutch still lives…
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© Fesetti, The Collectors © Fesetti, How to disappear
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© Chen Qiulin, Ellisis’s Series No. 3, 2002 (photograph) © Chen Qiulin, Peach Blossom, 2009 (dvd still) At a time when her understanding of contemporary art was still limited, Chen was unexpectedly invited to partake in Parabola, a satellite show of the First Chengdu Biennale (2001). On this occasion she created Ellisis (. . .…
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