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
It’s been a relatively organic process the way this blog has step into a coma. It’s not dead, nor am I thinking about killing it, since Nihilsentimentalgia works as a memory replacement: if I can’t remember the name of this or that author, I can always find her/him here, for I never forget the images…
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Cecile Perra‘s website can be seen here.
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Frank Robert’s website here.
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Caption (image above): untitled, Sofia Silva. From time to time I go back to this issue. It’s inevitable. With no surprise, the modern art world (at least what is made visible) has always been contaminated by the capitalist relationships that structure our societal living. This month, I came across some events, news and debates about…
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I’ve been following Nihilsentimentalgia for the past six years or so. I visit the blog every two or three months and read an entry or two. It’s an open but stable relationship. It seemed that every time I read the blog there are texts exactly matching the issues I currently grapple with, like a creepy…
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Ever since I left Glasgow, I”ve tried to keep up, at a distance, with what artists are doing there and by this time of the year, with the Degree Show happening at GSA, there’s always something worth seeing. The last degree show I saw in Glasgow I remember being very impressed with a particular work…
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Everything is workshopable these days. It’s an amazing thing. We can either learn to do things watching youtube videos or we can learn pretty much every technique attending workshops about this and that. As I see it, there’s clearly something weird about this. I’m not sure what it is, but somehow it affects the way…
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photo: Palestinian mourners carry the body of eight-month-old Palestinian baby Leila Anwar Ghandoour, who died from tear gas inhalation in Gaza City on 15 May 2018 [Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency] As of Sunday, a succession of events has once again reanimated a question that often comes to mind, namely: what would make me go into exile? Throughout…
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I met Duarte and Valter when doing my undergrad in photography. Both were my teachers and tutors and for quite some time that was the role assigned to them. In September 2008 brief notes were made about both of them. At the time, Valter was working with José Nuno Lamas, exploring landscape, performance and play. Duarte was finding his…
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Throughout this year, I’ll be publishing reader’s posts. To start, here is an article by one of Nihilsentimentalgia’s dearest readers: Robin Cracknell. When I first discovered Nihilsentimentalgia, I was a very different person. I had just had my first solo show in London, two more in the works, every day in my diary pencilled-in…
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Throughout this year, I’ll be publishing reader’s posts. Here is an article by one of Nihilsentimentalgia’s special readers: Jonathan Morse. Seen below, one of history’s little ruins: evidence that in or after 1915, something pressed itself upon a glass photographic negative and broke it. When the cracks radiated through the negative’s matrix and tore…
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If there’s one thing different kinds of feminism can agree upon is their will to “empower women”. But, that’s it; once we get started on the meaning of that “empowerment” the apparent cohesion starts to fall apart. Some co-called feminists think about themselves in such a way because they applaud and promote women’s confidence towards their…
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© Ana Teresa Barboza, Untitled (?). Images via ArtNau. A friend called my attention to Ana Teresa Barboza‘s work (Lima, Peru, 1981). A good friend, I should say, for she knows how I’m drawn to mixed techniques applied to photography, specially when it involves some sort of sewing. Ana Teresa’s work is anything but simple, though…
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all images © Isaac Pereira. Courtesy of the artist. This conversation took place in July 2014, over the virtual space that unites Macau and Lisboa. The original, portuguese version, of this conversation, can be seen HERE. Sofia: We’re having this conversation mainly because of your exhibition, Tree, now held in Macau. Although I couldn’t be…
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© Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Jessica Sue Layton, from the series The Box (Manhattan), 2005 © Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Chris and Mike O’Neal, from the series The Box (Manhattan), 2005 SARTRE’S MAP OF AUTHENTICITY BAD FAITH GOOD FAITH OPPRESSION CITY OF ENDS HARMONIOUS GROUP SELF-AWARENESS REFLECTIVE LIFE SPONTANEOUS LIFE TRANSCENDENT EGO INTENTIONALITY SELF-ORIGINATING SELF-DETERMINING INTROSPECTION ONE’S…
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© Gregory Michael Hernandez, Circular Mound Altar, Temple of Heaven, Beijing, from The Captive Universe (current work) © Gregory Michael Hernandez, Circular Mound Altar in Beijing , from The Captive Universe (current work) AN HEIDEGGERIAN MAP OF AUTHENTICITY DASEIN MINENESS OWNNESS HOMECOMING STATIC PASSIVITY GUILT ANXIETY COURAGE ONTIC ENTITY ALIENATION EVERYDAYNESS POSSIBILITIES SOLICITUDE FAMILIARITY SELF-BETRAYAL…
Read More© Eli Craven, Smoosh Smaller, from Condolences © Eli Craven, Side Swing, from Woman Alive © Eli Craven, Sofa, from Screen Lovers © Eli Craven, Hunch, from Screen Lovers © Eli Craven, White Hair, from Folding © Eli Craven, Tuck, from Folding More of Eli’s work here
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© Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12 © Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12 © Mark King, from the series Plastic, 2011-12 “Back in January I was preparing for a screen printing artist in residency at the Frans Masereel Centre in Kasterlee, Belgium and wanted to go there with a new portrait project…
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“The Negation of Time, Prologue” at Le Laboratoire, by William Kentridge with Peter Galison and Philip Miller (Photograph by Phase One Photography) It’s possible that scientists and artists may have one side of their brain more dominant than the other, with the broadly opposite characteristics of logic and creativity, but the best innovations in both…
Read MoreIn the last couple of months I’ve come across the issue of paedophilia for different reasons, all related to my research on art theory and artists’ work. It’s not an easy issue and I’ve found it very difficult to discuss with friends. This post comes about after watching the latest Vinterberg‘s movie The Hunt and…
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“image © Ahmet Ögüt,Strategic Diagram for Non-hierarchical Participatory Radical Democracy, 2011. In: Mind the System, Find the Gap “I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.” -Malcolm X © Ahmet Ögüt, from the project…
Read More“The book — the first mass-produced object — raises a number of questions concerning its conception and distribution. What do we mean by the expression « artist’s book » ? Is Cover to Cover a book of reproductions of an artist’s « originals » or a hand-crafted book containing illustrations of texts, printed on quality…
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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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© Nuno Direitinho, Untitled, from the series Backbone © Nuno Direitinho, Untitled, from the series Backbone © Nuno Direitinho, Untitled, from the series Backbone “The work aims to set up a dialogue between truth and deception in representation through the context of photography. I look for the juxtaposition between images and their contextual settings, aiming…
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© Christopher Williams, Cologne, November 1, 2004, from the series For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle. © Christopher Williams, Lodz, October 1, 2004, from the series For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle. “What William’s practice has made evident in significant, compelling, and ravishing ways is that photographic meaning is…
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