Author Archives: jolanta
The Irony of Obedience
The “Obey” sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in phenomenology. Heidegger describes phenomenology as “the process of letting things manifest themselves.” Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured, things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation. The […]
In a Room at Sunset
Sally Mann’s statement is insightful but it addresses only one element that contributes to the impact of this work. The book Proud Flesh and the accompanying exhibition, which opened at the Gagosian Gallery in New York in September, are the latest installments in Mann’s continuing thematic and visual explorations that ultimately deepen key subject matter […]
My Life—God’s Cut
It’s strange how an experience can change someone’s way of seeing things. And even influence their whole life. I grew up in Cairo as a Muslim, and in Islam we speak a lot about destiny—that each of us has a written time to come into this world and a time to leave, and whatever happens […]
Sounding Off
The work of Angela Bulloch is complex and versatile. She produces light and sound works, drawing machines, interactive installations, series of photographs, video programs, and works consisting of text. Behind her work’s diversity of form, technique, and presentation, there always lies a focused concern for public structures and social systems. Just as these processes and […]
Family Portraiture
Leah Oates: What do you think an artist is? When did you know you were an artist?Deana Lawson: An artist is someone who questions and interprets the world(s) around them, and who then responds in an outward and physical way. Ten years ago, an old friend, Sassy Ross, taught me that an individual could invent […]
Wave that Flag
Trigger and motive of my work are the friction and unease that arise from the contradictions in current and historical context. In my continuing examination of the events of the day, artistic concepts are developed that congeal into single images. The basis is often formed by photographs I find in magazines, books, and other visual […]
An Intimate Diorama
I create installations and environments, which imitate the natural world. My interest lies in the artifice that results from this mimicry. We desire wilderness and unspoilt nature that is not beyond our control, yet this is a contradiction. The work investigates the antagonism this creates. On first encounter, the skeletal creatures and plants that inhabit […]
Get the Party Started
Teng Chao-Ming: How did you start doing photography?Christophe Kutner: I started working as a photographer when I was 24. I worked as the assistant of Horst P. Horst. From his teaching, talking with him, and after that, with my own experience, I cross the whole history of photography. TC: So you didn’t go to art […]
Kristina Asvarn
Kristina Asvarn’s serene paintings create an innovative world within a world. Each of these “worlds” have led to the artist to develop a reputation for poetic epic works that display both delicacy and fragility, revealing a deep respect for something fundamental, some primal, indigenous sense of shape and color. Kristina Asvarn’s serene paintings create an […]
Twists in the Ordinary
Catherine Y. Hsieh: How did you become a photographer? And how did you make the transition?Asger Carlsen: I have a background in newspaper. I was doing newspaper for a few years. I was doing crime stuff mostly. I started back in…’91; I can’t remember anymore. You know, up until 2000 I was working as a […]
