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In my photographic works I attempt to impose myself in between the camera and the subject, creating a layer of interference over the perception of the space. In these works, I am able to take elements from the space around me and bring them under my control. I employ several methods of manipulating the photographic process from agitating the camera to crumpling and drawing on the photos themselves as a way of distorting the space depicted within them. Playing with photographs is a way I visually project myself through the camera onto the world. I am not attempting to record what I see, but instead to create an alternate subjective vision in order to illustrate that there is no objective truth. Even in the act of looking, we all project ourselves onto our surroundings. In his Florence Series, Gerhard Richter uses photographs of cityscapes as backdrops over which he applies dramatic smears and streaks of paint. The result is an exciting play of color and motion with the photos coming in and out of focus amid the ruckus. In the painting 9.2.2000 we see an image of the streets of Florence on the edge of the river with streaks of red, orange and purple both mingling with and blocking out the architecture. Neither the paint nor the photograph are allowed to dominate the surface, causing a constant push and pull between the two. Richter's working of the painted surface has activated the previously static space of the photograph. In his manipulation of the surface of the photo, Richter has created a depiction of a fantastic reality with a glorious sense of disorientation. I read the starts and stops of color as the artist imposing himself onto the depicted space. I view my photographic work as a bridge between two dimensional and three dimensional space. The three-dimensional format of sculpture makes it possible for me to interject myself and my vision directly into space. My sculptures are large organic shapes that I construct out of welded steel frames and cover with layers of fabric, adding additional adornment over the surface of the forms. By introducing these foreign bodies into my environment I hope to trouble the space around them. My piece, corner pop, 2003 aggressively occupies the corner of the gallery with its loud green color and top-heavy sway. Its cartoonish curves and ruffled collar give the piece a ridiculous humor that contradicts the threat of its size and stance. The viewer is dwarfed by the piece and is forced to look up and confront this spectacle of a structure. Richard Serra once said, "I think that sculpture, if it has any potential at all, has the potential to create its own place and space, and to work in contradiction to the spaces and places where it is created in this sense. I am interested in work where the artist is the maker of ‘anti-environment’ which takes its own place or makes its own situation, or divides and declares its own area." (Stiles, 603). In his piece, Corner Prop, 1969 Serra used a lead pole-set at an angle-to prop up a seemingly dense lead box in the corner of the gallery space. This simple arrangement has a way of eliciting a powerful response from the viewer, who is drawn in by the interesting composition and then becomes aware of the threat of the steel cube crashing down on them. The implied weight of the box and the precarious angle of the lead pole have a very disorienting effect on the space. The artist was able to psychologically alter the space around the piece with the sheer presence and positioning of the materials. Serra relies on the properties of steel to affect the space around his works, and I attempt to create a similar effect with my use of color, shape, and size. Though we both employ the element of tension in the space, Serra’s precarious compositions are simple and straightforward, where my sculptures are much more fantastic and otherworldly. |
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