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1/8/2008

Philip Glaser

Billirubin Gallery, Berlin

After the exhiliarating grand opening of Billirubin Gallery in the summer of 2007, photographer and artist Philip Glaser is now exhibiting the = second part of POLAROID SX70. The new series of works are centered exclusiv= ely around TAGS as a derivative, and the origin, of modern graffiti art. Th= e exhibition will open on August 2 and can be viewed until October 4, 2008. POLAROID SX70 Before his death in the early Seventies, twentieth century photographer Wal= ker Evans intensively devoted his time to Polaroid SX70 - the resulting art= work would be his last. Fundamentally comparable with Evans' project of 1973 Philip Glaser focuses = his latest Polaroid work on the fixation and separation of symantic symbols= , so-called TAGS, within the boundaries of a societal dimension. Just as ea= ch and every TAG, Polaroids represent a unique signature work and a piece o= f art that is the expression of a specific photographic attitude. In strong= opposition to digital photography, Polaroids incorporate pastel colour nua= nces as well as smooth contrasts and analogue grain that are unique to its = kind. No other photo medium presents such fragile and haptic sensation likePolaroid SX70.

PHILIP GLASER POLAROID SX70 WORKS#2 BERLIN TAGS Philip Glaser on his work BERLIN TAGS: "TAGS are the origin of modern graffiti and have always fascinated me, espe= cially because I was to personally witness the late prime-time of TAGS as w= ell the main phase of classical graffitis in early-Eighties New York. I rem= ember the common picture of subway trains covered in TAGS spreading symbols= and gang-messages as they rattled through metropolitan New York, the mothe= r of todays metropolis. Eventually gaining art status, graffiti was domesticated. Today, as a result, urban graffiti art is subsidised and cultivated = almost academically. TAGS, on the other hand, have remained unchanged in th= eir rudimentary impetous. Common simplistic name-signatures and symbols of = the Seventies, such as TAKI183 or VO73, are still sprayed as territorial de= marcation lines of human existence."

Working on Berlin TAGS over a period of two years, Philip Glaser has found = a socio-culturally nurturing ground in Berlin which is similar to the New Y= ork of the early Eighties. While he began his project in an attempt to incl= ude classical graffiti, the artists images soon turned increasingly basic u= ntil, eventually, graffitis in his work represented little more than distan= t and opposing relatives to TAGS. Nonetheless, the objective of Berlin TAGS= was not a sociological study of society; rather, the exhibition is a artis= tic interpretation of the strong aesthetic appeal portrayed in this unique = form of expression. As symbolic valuesis attributed to the parallel rise of= TAGS and Polaroid SX70, more importantly, the opposite social ends of the = societal spectrum of the early Seventies are documented. While TAGS embody = the rise of the subcultures, Polaroids mark the incarnation of high-end con= sumerism. The exhibition materialises these contrasts and establishes an ex= citing and admirable connection between the two.

Opening reception: Saturday August 2, 7 - 10 pm

Billirubin
Linienstr. 127 - Berlin

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