An American photographer, she has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the Venice Biennale and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to name a few. Through her images and narratives, she awakens our curiosity about what is real in photography and narrative; what is fact and what is constructed fiction. In the following TED talk she shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.
Thursday 9 January 2014
Photography, Truth and Constructed Narrative
My last post focused on the works of Rebecca Belmore, while one of my first posts was on Lily Yeh Both artists recognize the the power of art to create the foundations toward social change. Social change can begin merely by the simple awareness of oppression, prejudices, barriers and hierarchies. Raising our consciouness is the beginning and the hope is that once we are more cognizant of the need for change, we will be moved to action. Taryn Simon, provides another example in the ways in which women are acting as activists advocating for social change of many kinds. She brings into question if what we see, what we are told is real and, if it isn't real, if it is constructed or a fabrication, then what do we do?
An American photographer, she has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the Venice Biennale and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to name a few. Through her images and narratives, she awakens our curiosity about what is real in photography and narrative; what is fact and what is constructed fiction. In the following TED talk she shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.
An American photographer, she has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the Venice Biennale and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to name a few. Through her images and narratives, she awakens our curiosity about what is real in photography and narrative; what is fact and what is constructed fiction. In the following TED talk she shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.
Art and Social Change: Performance Art
Rebecca Belmore is an artist and the recipient of the 2013 Laureate, Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Her art reflects herself as an artist, as a woman and as an Anishinaabe. Her works are filled with reference to gender-based ritual and she provides a foundation for the viewer/audience to be moved to action. What follows is a short video that I found to be provocative and insightful into the act of creating art.
Another piece, Vigil (2002), which she performed on the streets of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in 2002, commemorates First Nations women that were murdered or went missing off the street of Vancouver. Her work seeks to conjure remembrances of colonial oppression and to restore our public memory of those women lost and forgotten as not only women, but First Nations people.
During the performance, viewed here, the passersby participates as witness as she scrubs the street on hands and knees, lighting votive candles, and nailing a long red dress she is wearing to a telephone pole. The curatorial description of her performance goes on to describe her struggle to free herself the dress tearing from her body and "hanging in tatters from the nails, reminiscent of the tattered lives of women forced onto the streets for their survival in an alien urban environment" . . . I invite you to watch this and to follow what the artist will do next.
Another piece, Vigil (2002), which she performed on the streets of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in 2002, commemorates First Nations women that were murdered or went missing off the street of Vancouver. Her work seeks to conjure remembrances of colonial oppression and to restore our public memory of those women lost and forgotten as not only women, but First Nations people.
During the performance, viewed here, the passersby participates as witness as she scrubs the street on hands and knees, lighting votive candles, and nailing a long red dress she is wearing to a telephone pole. The curatorial description of her performance goes on to describe her struggle to free herself the dress tearing from her body and "hanging in tatters from the nails, reminiscent of the tattered lives of women forced onto the streets for their survival in an alien urban environment" . . . I invite you to watch this and to follow what the artist will do next.
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