Interview: Aerial Photographer Louis Helbig

Aerial art photographer Louis Helbig recently gave an interview with CityTV Edmonton about his series "Beautiful Destruction":

http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/1367742830001.000000/beautiful-destruction/

Helbig explains his interest in the oil sands in the tension that arises between his truly beautiful images and the environmental disaster going on there. With his neutral aerial photographs, Helbig gives the viewers the opportunity to form their own opinion. This documentary approach nevertheless is an important contribution to the current debate.

To see more of his work, check:
http://visualencounter.blogspot.com/2011/02/aerial-abstractions-burtynsky-gursky.html

Louis Helbig's web site: http://www.louishelbig.com/

Made in America 1900-1950. Photographs from the National Gallery of Canada

It took me over one month but I finally made it to the photographs exhibition at the National Gallery (NGC). “Made in America 1900-1950” belongs to a series of exhibitions that has shown 19th-century British and 19th-century French photographs in the recent years. Now the first half of the 20th century American photography has its turn… and it turned out very well.

The exhibition at the second floor shows just over 100 photographs, and follows the approach to present both photography as art and documentary. This clearly lies in the nature of the show, presenting American photography in the first half of the 20th century which of course includes art and documentation – just thinking about names like Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Berenice Abbott, Lisette Model, and Weegee. And it lies in the nature of photography; so this approach is not entirely new. It even might leave some of the visitors a bit wondering about the combination of these photographs that follow so different approaches. (Still, regardless of the discussion about photography as art and its place in museums that seems to be obsolete by now!) But on the other hand, the exhibition gives an excellent overview about the development of American photography and its most famous photographers – and it shows amazing vintage prints that we all have seen in textbooks about this era.

The exhibition starts with Pictorialism of the first two decades of the early 20th century. In particular Gertrude Käsebier’s romantic gum bichromate prints (one shows Edward Steichen standing beside her sister and friends) caught my attention. The photographs clearly show the Pictorialist aim to advance the status of photography as a true art form. But it left me wondering, why the curators decided to NOT include photographs of the 19th century in the exhibition (after all, the Pictorialist movement started in the late 19th century and not strictly with the year 1900).

Furthermore of interest: The NGC designed the first two rooms of the exhibit in homage to Alfred Stieglitz’ Gallery 291 with its distinctive look: with muted green walls, dim lights and curtains hanging low from wooden chair rails. The second room shows stunning portraits by Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Frank Eugene etc.

The exhibition also shows photographs by the Group f/64 that followed a modernist aesthetic in opposition to Pictorialism. Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham (I love her portrait of Frida Kahlo (1931)!) are represented with some of their most iconic photographs.

In the field of documentary, in particular Lewis Hine’s and Dorothea Lange’s works are worth to be mentioned. The NGC owns one of the best prints of Lange’s iconic “Migrant Mother” (1936) in which the baby’s face is visible. Also represented are photographs by Margaret Bourke-White, Berenice Abbott, Lisette Model, Weegee (I love the shot of the sleeping kids on the fire escape platform), Andreas Feininger, and the members of New York’s Photo League.

So, in case you are wondering why the exhibition stops at 1950: That’s because the NGC holds so much more interesting photographs from the following decades that they will get their own show. When, is not announced yet. I am already very curious to see works by Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus then. And I am sure that this exhibition will be also worthwhile a visit – like this show is!

Facts:

Made in America 1900-1950. Photographs from the National Gallery of Canada

09 Dec 2011 - 01 Apr 2012

http://www.gallery.ca/madeinamerica/

Preview: Karen Jordon "Slow Dance"

On my way through the Byward Market last weekend, I curiously stopped by at the Karsh-Masson Gallery. Turned out, the gallery is closed in the moment for the installation of an upcoming exhibit: Karen Jordon “Slow Dance”. It starts in two weeks, on February 3rd.

But when you walk by, you can get a first glimpse of her works; like a huge mountain of record tape spaghetti, an old radio, a tape recorder, and other audio equipment, arranged in the display window.

As the Virtual Museum web site of the Karsh Masson states: “Slow Dance itemizes components from the period of the sound and culture industry bracketed by the decline of record albums and the advent of compact discs. The resulting work both maps and predicts the accelerating pace of changing technologies and subsequently diminished life spans of electronics and communication devices. Jordon juxtaposes the intimate and abiding place music holds in people’s lives against the unwanted technologies left behind when material and utility are parted.”

Karen Jordon received her BFA from the University of Ottawa in 1992. She also joined the Enriched Bread Artists (EBA) collective in the same year.

Her work is process-based involving the collection and manipulation of her own, and other people’s, discarded belongings. Her statement on the web site of the EBA:

“Part consumer parody and part lament my work is a parallel system of acquisition and abandonment that reassigns values, meanings and possible histories. My objective is to disrupt the frenetic pace of our post-industrial world, to slow the viewer and myself, down, to create spaces that invite acts of contemplation or of simply looking.”

Looking forward to that show! 

Facts:

Karsh-Masson Gallery

February 3, 2012 to April 8, 2012

Open Wednesday 12 to 5 p.m., Thursday 12 to 8 p.m, Friday to Sunday 12 to 5 p.m.

http://enrichedbreadartists.com/members/KarenJordon.htm

Three Must-See Exhibits… And Only Five Days Left!

First of all: Happy New Year! Isn’t it unbelievable how time is passing by?

In Ottawa, three must-see exhibits only run until January 8th – so just four more days to go! Take your last chance to visit these outstanding exhibits:

Ramses Madina, “Road Crew 29”, 2010, Silver Gelatin Print, from the web site: www.facebook.com/Public.Art.Ottawa, copyright by Ramses Madina

Ramses Madina – Night for Day: Road Crews @ City Hall Art Gallery

Ramses Madina’s black and white photographic series “Night for Day: Road Crews” already caught my attention when I visited the “Place and Circumstance” exhibition at the City Hall Art Gallery last June (http://visualencounter.blogspot.com/2011/06/place-and-circumstance-city-hall-art.html). In his stunning night photographs, he draws with light attention to the road workers who labour as the city sleeps enveloped in darkness. We see Ottawa by night in an uncommon way, like captured from an imagined landscape. Occurring in darkness, when most of the citizens are sleeping, these actions seem somewhat mysterious. The crew’s overnight activity ensures that the roads are ready for the morning shift to venture out to start its day. A stunning documentation!

http://www.ottawa.ca/rec_culture/arts/gallery_exhibit/city_hall/index_en.html


Cindy Stelmackowich: Dearly Departed @ Bytown Museum

A bit creepy but also fascinating is the work of Cindy Stelmackowich that examines the highly charged visual and written language of mourning in the 19th century. She draws her inspiration from various historic objects in the Bytown Museum and her own artefact collection.

Stelmackowich’s digital prints and sculptures reconsider and transform traditional mourning objects such as Victorian hair wreaths, bereavement verse and women’s black lace clothing regarding the cult of grief and remembrance. Her findings like jewellery, wreaths and watch fobs were actually made of human hair, some of it most likely clipped from the heads of corpses! The widespread cult of mourning was inspired by Queen Victoria who mourned the death of her husband, Prince Albert, for forty years.

Quiet an amazing show!

http://www.bytownmuseum.com/en/exhibits.html


David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East @ National Gallery of Canada

David Askevold (1940-2008) is recognized as an important contributor to the development and pedagogy of conceptual art. This full-career retrospective exhibition considers the four strains of Askevold’s exploratory journey – sculpture/installation, film and video, photo-text works, and digital images and includes key pieces from each stage of his career.

Like the director of the National Gallery, Marc Mayer points out: “He was a pioneering figure in the development of conceptual art in the 1970s, and continued to be an influential conceptualist throughout his career. […] For me, what’s compelling about Askevold is that he worked hard to maintain an independent artistic perspective in the exploration of new media. He believed in the role of the artist as unique in our contemporary set of professions.” (From the NGC web site)

http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/exhibitions/current/details/david-askevold-once-upon-a-time-in-the-east-66