Papier peint
The Third Margin
Printed matter and archives of Maria Thereza Alves
Neighbourhood
New photographic works by Nikki Middlemiss
Gallery 101
papier peint
Sadko Hadzihasanovic
SAW Gallery
Photographs from Neighbourhoods, courtesy NikkiMiddlemiss.com
"The photographic process is not scaled to the possibilities of grey tones of tropical light: the usual possible result is a high contrast print. Also cultural and economic differences further reinforces our ideas of what we shall see, what we want to see, and what we expect to see." Maria Thereza Alves is not the first to make such observations of the technical limitations of black and white photography. Her statement, "Grey Scale," accompanies a series of high contrast medium quality black and white photocopies.
"As artists we cannot accept the limitations of the current grey scale because our work is the process of possibilities," Alves statement ends. It's ironic that the process of photocopying itself further increased the contrast of these images and decreased the detail in the highlights and the shadows.
Now living in Berlin, Alves is a former student at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. In her studies there it seems a stretch to believe she did not learn about the photographic system pioneered by Ansel Adams and others called The Zone System. Based on previsualization and exposing negatives for shadow detail and making prints for detail in the highlights, that system allows the photographer to exert as total control as is possible over tonal ranges in a negative and the subsequent print - without going digital.
Does presenting these contrasty images of people living in various states of squalor and poverty in Southern America perpetuate the critique Alves makes of photographic technology or perpetuate it? Coming to the images cold, it was difficult to look at them without getting the sense that there were experiments yet to be made with the technology or the presentation of its product that perhaps Alves has yet to attempt.
Accompanying the photographs, Alves presents a series of 10 texts on a shelf, including fiction, essays, letters, and ethnography. It's a chancy thing to do something like this in a visual art gallery. The material certainly appeared engaging: an interview with renown writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an essay called "I hate 'I love Lucy'" for instance. But there is no comfortable seating provided as part of this exhibition. To stand and read for any extended length of time requires some effort.
It's a simple thing, but I stood there wishing Alves had done something radical like approach a publisher or published her work on the Net. Knowing your audience is sometimes as simple as understanding that, in the age of the Internet, TV, and book stores with cozy sofas and chairs, to expect individuals to stand and read so much material is to expect a little too much. Even audio-tapes of excerpts would have eased the entry into this work and increased viewers' exposures to Alves' ideas.
Upstairs at Gallery 101, the latest work of Nikki Middlemiss kicks off the gallery's 20th anniversary celebrations. The semi-abstractions of the trite and dull in suburban Ottawa architecture make for her subject. With the skies often a pseudo-Kodachrome blue these cheesecake sometimes quite starkly (surprisingly) dramatic pictures emanate something surreal. Hailing from the Prairies, Middlemiss demonstrates a marked skill for shifting spatial perspectives and demarcating hitherto little known patterns in the every day. In her artist's statement she refers to the details and unique touches that individual residents make to their banal homes. It's unfortunate that from the angles she chose to photograph the said buildings, all such details are mostly obliterated.
Middlemiss clearly has an eye for photographing at the time of day best suited to the effect she's trying to create. But overall Neighbourhood, Middlemiss' first solo show, is a little flat - high on image, low on substance. Middlemiss appears to be searching for something, anything, to say about something that's already been done many times before... even though she does do it beautifully.
Over at the recently flooded now almost restored SAW Gallery, Papier peint, a delightful set of paintings by Sadko Hadzihasanovic continues. Bosnian-born Hadzihasanovic paints on fading unkempt bits of old wallpaper. Taking full advantage of the designs on the paper, Hadzihasanovic builds his images in layers, introducing a new image element as part of the wallpaper's design, as in "Self Portrait as a little boy with David Letterman".
Taking up themes of war and consumerism and (I suspect) a straight shot of autobiography, Hadzihasanovic puts his masterful drawing skills and ability to render volumes to seemingly simple yet potent use. Throwing mixed media like bits of hair and matches into the mix, he creates apparently simple images whose ideas stay with viewers for long afterwards.
On a visceral level, Hadzihasanovic does what so many of us always wanted to do—tell stories by drawing on the wallpaper of the rooms we grew up in.
Published in The Ottawa Xpress, 2001
"As artists we cannot accept the limitations of the current grey scale because our work is the process of possibilities," Alves statement ends. It's ironic that the process of photocopying itself further increased the contrast of these images and decreased the detail in the highlights and the shadows.
Now living in Berlin, Alves is a former student at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. In her studies there it seems a stretch to believe she did not learn about the photographic system pioneered by Ansel Adams and others called The Zone System. Based on previsualization and exposing negatives for shadow detail and making prints for detail in the highlights, that system allows the photographer to exert as total control as is possible over tonal ranges in a negative and the subsequent print - without going digital.
Does presenting these contrasty images of people living in various states of squalor and poverty in Southern America perpetuate the critique Alves makes of photographic technology or perpetuate it? Coming to the images cold, it was difficult to look at them without getting the sense that there were experiments yet to be made with the technology or the presentation of its product that perhaps Alves has yet to attempt.
Accompanying the photographs, Alves presents a series of 10 texts on a shelf, including fiction, essays, letters, and ethnography. It's a chancy thing to do something like this in a visual art gallery. The material certainly appeared engaging: an interview with renown writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an essay called "I hate 'I love Lucy'" for instance. But there is no comfortable seating provided as part of this exhibition. To stand and read for any extended length of time requires some effort.
It's a simple thing, but I stood there wishing Alves had done something radical like approach a publisher or published her work on the Net. Knowing your audience is sometimes as simple as understanding that, in the age of the Internet, TV, and book stores with cozy sofas and chairs, to expect individuals to stand and read so much material is to expect a little too much. Even audio-tapes of excerpts would have eased the entry into this work and increased viewers' exposures to Alves' ideas.
Upstairs at Gallery 101, the latest work of Nikki Middlemiss kicks off the gallery's 20th anniversary celebrations. The semi-abstractions of the trite and dull in suburban Ottawa architecture make for her subject. With the skies often a pseudo-Kodachrome blue these cheesecake sometimes quite starkly (surprisingly) dramatic pictures emanate something surreal. Hailing from the Prairies, Middlemiss demonstrates a marked skill for shifting spatial perspectives and demarcating hitherto little known patterns in the every day. In her artist's statement she refers to the details and unique touches that individual residents make to their banal homes. It's unfortunate that from the angles she chose to photograph the said buildings, all such details are mostly obliterated.
Middlemiss clearly has an eye for photographing at the time of day best suited to the effect she's trying to create. But overall Neighbourhood, Middlemiss' first solo show, is a little flat - high on image, low on substance. Middlemiss appears to be searching for something, anything, to say about something that's already been done many times before... even though she does do it beautifully.
Over at the recently flooded now almost restored SAW Gallery, Papier peint, a delightful set of paintings by Sadko Hadzihasanovic continues. Bosnian-born Hadzihasanovic paints on fading unkempt bits of old wallpaper. Taking full advantage of the designs on the paper, Hadzihasanovic builds his images in layers, introducing a new image element as part of the wallpaper's design, as in "Self Portrait as a little boy with David Letterman".
Taking up themes of war and consumerism and (I suspect) a straight shot of autobiography, Hadzihasanovic puts his masterful drawing skills and ability to render volumes to seemingly simple yet potent use. Throwing mixed media like bits of hair and matches into the mix, he creates apparently simple images whose ideas stay with viewers for long afterwards.
On a visceral level, Hadzihasanovic does what so many of us always wanted to do—tell stories by drawing on the wallpaper of the rooms we grew up in.
Published in The Ottawa Xpress, 2001
