Wednesday 19 September 2012

ALMA HASER










ALMA HASER /// COSMIC SURGERY

Since leaving University in 2010, Alma has been working on self-portraits, being her own willing and available model. More recently she has started taking portraits of other people and is interested in making work that has a disquieting or disconcerting resonance.

Alma has always made things with her hands and now tries to find ways to combine her fine art background with photography. She has used origami in the past as props in her photographs, but in this series ‘Cosmic Surgery’ the origami has become an integral part of the final image.

The series has three distinct stages. Firstly Alma photographs her sitter, then prints multiple images of the subjects face and folds them into a complicated origami modular construction, which then gets placed back onto the original face of the portrait. Finally the whole thing is re-photographed.

Origami is very meditative, you can get lost in the world of folding for hours. It is also extremely delicate and fragile, so by giving each geometric paper shape somewhere to sit within the final image, the origami has been given a backbone.

There is something quite alien about the manipulated faces, as if they belong to some futuristic next generation. In these portraits the children become uncanny, while their parents are seen in a more familiar moment.

With the simple act of folding an image Alma can transform each face and make a sort of flattened sculpture. By de-facing her models she has made their portraits into her own creations.


ALMA HASER

ERIC CAHAN










ERIC CAHAN /// SKY SERIES


Several focal points define the work of New York-based artist Eric Cahan. Among them: light, specifically the light generated by the sun at sunrise and sunset, science, nature, and the ephemeral quality of memories. These considerations are in play when, equipment in tow, Cahan heads outside at a carefully chosen hour of morning or evening to begin creating one of his flawless, ethereal works of art.

Cahan himself made most of the work for his current project, Sky Series, during his extensive travels. Each photograph and sculpture is titled with the time and location of its conception. In this way, Cahan catalogues his visual journal. “ During my travels, I discover what I want to document. My works are titled to remind me of the experience, both visually and spiritually.” Cahan’s viewers see in his work his unique interpretation of a specific time and place.

Understanding what inspires Cahan and learning more about the elaborate technical process necessary to create his pieces leads to awed appreciation of his art. When asked how much post-production goes into creating the final piece Cahan laments, a lot of people ask me if this is all done in Photoshop. In fact, very little Photoshop is used. I will only tone photos to match the paper type and, in some cases, add a bit of color curves. The actual process is done with colored resin filters I make myself and hold in front of the lens before I shoot a picture. When a color filter is used against a blue sky, it always alters the color of the sky. I know the colors I am trying to conjure and choose the filter accordingly. Many factors affect the capturing and manipulating of light and shadow, which is why Cahan works at sunrise and sunset and also, invariably, at the water’s edge: “My mission is to capture light. Light is the true subject of this series: its constant mystery, the way it shifts and colors everything around it in nature.”

Also influencing Cahan’s thinking is the Impressionists’ depiction of natural light and its ever-changing qualities, and the artist’s study of Color Theory – the science of how colors, tones, and hues combine to create widely varied determinable results. Cahan is particularly compelled to pursue the magical light of a sunrise or sunset. He finds that sunrises usually have a marine layer, but the sky has fewer clouds. If he waits for just the right moment, he can capture the clear glow before the sun rises. The color temperature changes from cool to warm in the morning. At sunset, colors are more saturated; he tends to focus on shadows because he’s not shooting directly into the sun.

Cahan’s polyester resin sculptures, made from the same surface material as surfboards and sailboards, are in their own way three-dimensional interpretations of his photographs. Similarly meant to capture and manipulate light, they conjure the sensation of looking into the sky or the ocean. The way light behaves and interacts with the material of Cahan’s sculptures depends entirely on the sculpture’s environment. If outdoors, earth and sky are visible through and filtered by the sculpture’s material. If indoors, the resin will predominately reflect the light around it, acting much like a prism.

“My work is meant to capture a moment in nature, asking and empowering the viewer to be fully present, involved, and uplifted. I want the viewer to be drawn in, and be completely absorbed by, rather than separate from, that fleeting moment in time.”



ERIC CAHAN
FOUND HERE


Friday 7 September 2012

FABIAN OEFNER










FABIAN OEFNER /// IRIDIENT
Bursting Soap Bubbles

Captured with High Speed Flash Units, the images show soap bubbles in the moment of bursting. In the first few images, you can still see the bubbles intact, few instants after their creation. In the last pictures, you see how the thin film of soap starts to dissapear, leaving behind countless tiny drops of soap water.


FABIAN OEFNER

SARAH ANNE JOHNSON








SARAH ANNE JOHNSON /// ARTIC WONDERLAND

Canadian artist Sarah Anne Johnson completed her MFA at Yale in 2004 with a thesis project entitled Tree Planting. This ambitious installation recorded her summers spent in northern Canada in which she engaged in the communal activity of reforesting as a means of income. In this project, Johnson combines straight photographs with photographs recording "tableaux," scenes she created with little sculptural figures set in the landscape. These vignettes extend beyond the photographs she took during her summers in Canada, illustrating what Johnson experienced both visually and emotionally. Johnson conceived of the show project as an installation, forming a large narrative displayed on curved walls.


SARAH ANNE JOHNSON

MARIA KANEVSKAYA







MARIA KANEVSKAYA /// SELF OBSERVATION
Series of self portraits based on inner emotions and feelings.


MARIA KANEVSKAYA

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