Notes on Photography

Sandy Skoglund

photographer, set designer, sculptor
intent: "to show what it's like to live in America at this time"
animal/human forms sculpted and posed - idea of still life tradition
food shown in context of pattern painting and "food photography" (for sunday grocery store inserts)
paradox - commercial/uncommercial
work is about art and objects
tableaux as "film in a frame"
It's about how eye experiences it; she doesn't think that the installation enhances the viewers' experiences
Identifies work as "theme park" almost non-art because it's so many things: painting, photography, installation, theater, film, pop sculpture
"deliberately meant to have lots of different means of access"
sees photography itself as a medium within culture that's mainly about control
no photo is neutral -- she expands this

Christian Boltanski

objects and images including photos
creates nuanced environment that conveys political message (Holocaust)
believes beyond scope of "direct documentation" and "single image"
grainy b&w photos
takes from holocaust sources (for instance group photos of Jewish children celebrating narrow escape of jews from mass execution)
innocent childrens' faces seem like corpses -- empty sockets for eyes
installs in semi-darkness
small incandescent bulbs cast soft haloes of light
coffin-like metal drawers/boxes
poignant archive *indirectly* memorializaes the dead
"Photographic sculptures"
evoke hauning memory, loss and death
archive with obituaries/newsclippings
garments - allusion to mountain of clothing left beyind by Holocaust victims of Nazi death camps.

Mariko Mori

multimedia (photo, video, performance, 3d video technology - pioneer in the latter)
born in Tokyo; now works in New York studio with international team of assistants
deals with issues of being an "outsider" both in American society and mainstream Japanese culture
daughter of art historian and inventor (wants to merge in art)
worked as fashion designer and model in the 1980s
art school at Chelsea School of Art (London) and Whitney in New York
work explores complex and hybrid nature of individual identity in the globalized world
Japanese tradition, Eastern & Western art forms & motifs, fashion, pop culture, science fiction & technology
compare to 2001 A Space Odyssey
highly stylized interface of humans, technology and ethereal "other"
spiritual dimension of Buddhist enlightenment -- shown as a possible way for humankiind to progress into era of peace and understanding
appears in her own work cf. Yasumasa Morimura, Cindy Sherman
postmodern role of medium through which various social and cultural ideas can be evoked.
"someone who needs to be created" - techno dream-woman of tomorrow
Cyborg woman, casts others as extras in cinematically staged photographic events
*not* a conceptual art exercise

Tea Ceremony

from 15c, feminine pursuit, stressing constraint, discipline and tradition
serious and frivolous at once
unlike Warhol, she actually has become the machine
a cyborg not just through fantasy costume and photo narrative but through notion of infinite replication by computer.

Birth of a Star

Miko no Inori (video)

Nirvana (video)

merges past/present/future
floats as goddess figure (cyborgs, spirits, multiple selves)
into spiritual nature of Buddhist art
digital landscape animated by new technologies
3d & interactive virtual reality video (melts into viewers space)
fiber optic sunlight collection and transmission device (Himiwari)
seeks total revolution in thinking about reality through visceral and visual experience of her art
optical illusion beyond hologram