calendario eventi  :: 

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22/9/2000

exhibitions

Museum Contemporary Photography, Chicago

Thomas Joshua Cooper, Anna Fox, Barbara Kasten, Seydou Keïta, Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg, 20 x 24 Polaroids

The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, will present exhibitions by prominent contemporary artists working with photography: Thomas Joshua Cooper (United States/Scotland), Anna Fox (England), Barbara Kasten (United States), Seydou Keïta (Mali), Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg (Australia), and a selection of 20 x 24 Polaroids by various artists. The works on view have never before been shown in Chicago.

Thomas Joshua Cooper investigates the persistent beauty of the sea in his moody, black-and-white photographs of the waves, whirlpools, rocks, and breakers of various oceans around the world. Using a 1898 field camera, Cooper often photographs in places charged with history, such as the area on the coast of Iceland where, in the eleventh century, Lief Ericson departed to explore the New World. Often composed with dim illumination and without a horizon line, Cooper’s images are difficult to decipher in terms of scale. A master of photographic craftsmanship, Cooper creates images of exquisite resolution and rich tonality.

For the Dutch, the Christmas season starts in late November. With much merriment, they celebrate the arrival of Sinterklaas, the white bishop of Toledo, who comes riding through town surrounded by his black servants, the so-called Zwarte Piet. Usually white women dressed in elaborate, clownlike costumes, the Zwarte Piet throw candy to the crowds of children and shake birch branches at the naughty. In her portraits, British photographer Anna Fox explores this Dutch tradition which raises issues of race, class, and gender; ultimately questioning what it means to hold onto a tradition that demonizes the foreign in the advent of growing racial diversity.

American artist Barbara Kasten is known for using light and color to photographically transform architectural structures into images of depth and formal beauty. The photographs on view at the museum were made in 1990 at the Puye Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico, a location significant as an origin of built culture in the United States. The making of these photographs was an elaborate production involving a crew of electricians, gaffers, and assistants borrowed from the film industry, who worked throughout the night to alter the space using tungsten lights with color gels plugged into portable generators.

From 1948 until 1962, Seydou Keïta was the most successful commercial portraitist in Bamako, capital city of the former French Sudan (now Mali). In addition to being striking images, Keïta’s photographs of the Bamakois are also sociological documents that reflect colonial influences as well as the rise of modernity in West Africa. Having a portrait taken by Keïta in the 1940s and 1950s implied one’s cosmopolitanism. His subjects’ desire to be seen as modern, wealthy, and beautiful is reflected in their choices of props, adornments, and clothing, some of which were supplied by Keïta. Born in 1923, and retired since 1977, Keïta has always lived in Bamako, Mali.

In her video piece entitled Artist, made in collaboration with Gary Hillberg, Tracey Moffatt’s interest in the political fate of the dispossessed, coupled with her vast repertoire of film and television imagery, mix with her quick wit to create a delightful dialogue about the representation of the artist. Made entirely of clips culled from film and television, Artist is carefully sequenced, creating a nonlinear narrative that questions the validity of representation in pop culture and the stereotypes it fashions.

Also on view at the museum will be a selection of 20-by-24 Polaroids recently produced at the Chicago 20-by-24 Polaroid Studio managed by The Museum of Contemporary Photography. One of only six in the world, the Polaroid 20-by-24 (inch) camera produces a full color or black-and-white peel-apart image in seventy seconds. The resulting photographs offer lush color, remarkable detail, and virtually grainless surfaces. Exhibiting artists include Dawoud Bey, Jane Calvin, Peter LeGrand, Tom Maday, Joyce Neimanas, Sandro, and Buzz Spector.

A public lecture by Anna Fox will take place on Thursday, September 28, 2000 at 6:30 pm in the galleries of The Museum of Contemporary Photography. The exhibition’s opening reception will be the same evening from 5:30 until 8 pm. A special screening of Lip, also by Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg, and Nice Colored Girls and Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy by Moffatt, will take place at 6 pm on Thursday, October 19, 2000, in the Ferguson Theater, Columbia College Chicago, 600 South Michigan Avenue. Lunchtime gallery talks and tours of the current exhibitions will be hosted by museum staff members on Wednesday, October 11, 2000 at 12:15 pm, and Wednesday, November 8, 2000 at 12:15 pm. From November 24 through December 8, 2000, the museum will continue its 'behind the scenes' program, remaining open during its installation period. During this time the public is invited to visit the museum as the staff (often with the artists themselves) unpack, lay out, assemble, and hang works by the next group of exhibiting artists, including Aziz + Cucher (United States), Heike Baranowsky (Germany), Nic Nicosia (United States), Michael Spano (United States), and Tomoko Yoneda (Japan).The museum is free and open to the public weekdays from 10 until 5 pm (Thursdays until 8 pm) and Saturdays from 12 to 5 pm.

The exhibitions, presentations, and related programs of The Museum of Contemporary Photography are supported in part by grants from AOL Foundation; The Chicago Community Trust; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Sara Lee Foundation; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is also sponsored in part by The British Council and Autograph ABP. This ongoing series of exhibitions is principally sponsored by American Airlines, the official airlines of The Museum of Contemporary.

Contact: Karen Irvine, 312.344.7707 or 312.663.5554

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