g
fon}
“
8Whitten come to mind—who have
hewed to abstraction throughout
periods of art-world favor for figu-
rative and photopraphy-based styles,
if not of blanket disdain for the
old-fangled medium of oil on canvas.
Whitney has earned the passionate
esteem of many fellow-painters and
painting aficionados; now should be
his moment for wider recognition.
His recent work is his finest, and the
case that it makes for abstract art’s
not yet exhausted potencies, both
aesthetic and philosophical, thrills.
Through Oct. 25.
GALLERIES—UPTOWN
“Photography Sees the
Surface”
This knockout show combines new
and vintage photographs and strad-
dles abstraction and representation.
Organized by the artist Aspen Mays,
itjuxtaposes pictures by Minor White,
Man Ray, and Frederick Sommer with
works by young newcomers, several
of whom make impressive débuts
here. John Opera's big, blue-black
cyanotype image of melted venetian
blinds has an eerie presence, and Jackie
Furtado’ picture of a man’s face ina
nearly impenetrable shadow finds an
odd echo in a piece by Nick George
that suggests a featureless George
Condo portrait. Through Aug. 7.
(Higher Pictures, 980 Madison Ave.,
at 7th St. 212-249-6100.)
GALLERIES—CHELSEA
Nobuyoshi Araki
The seventy-seven black-and-white
photographs in Araki’s “Eros Diary”
are all time-stamped July 7, creating a
fiction thatall the pictures were taken
on the same day—the anniversary
of the Japanese artist's wedding to
his late wife. But the significance
of the date weighs lightly on the
series, which touches on mortality
but pays more rapt attention to sex,
toys, and sex toys. Araki’s imaginary
day is filled end to end with nude
‘women and food; his parents make
a cameo appearance, but it’s Araki’s
id that dominates this playful self-
portrait of the artist as a provocateur.
‘Through Aug. 7. (Kern, 532 W. 20th
St, 212-367-9663.)
Elmer Bischoff
Large, moody, startlingly strong
paintings, made between 1953 and
1972, argue for greater recognition
for the Bay Area peer of Richard
Diebenkorn and David Park. Bischoff
countered Abstract Expressionism
(whic
colleag
Rothke
Fine A
late nit
loyalty
be terr
la lett
modert
and fur
drama
Gettin,
grand +
with Be
as see t
pressur
525-531
De Wa
Anover
minim:
solo she
cast pol
usual &
into tal,
hieratic
diamon
The twe
surface:
lighting
works ;
and ocl
ent cor
differerafterimage
THE JOURNAL OF MEDIA ARTS AND CULTURAL CRITICISM
REPORTS
Artist Organisations
International Conference
Andra Lis
2
ospect.3 New Orleans
Kathryn Kramer
Society for Photographie Education
National Con!
Karen vanMeenen
6
FEATURES,
Migratory Surfaces: An Tnformal
Visual Economy and the Repair of the
Colonial Archive
Timothy PA Cooper
8
Equivalent Simulation:
A Conversation with John Opera
Devi Laocea
is
EXHIBITION REVIEWS
Tina Cara
2
Aura Soe: Ete Leaking Light
enon sesh Lip
B
coven Tim Maal
26 Adam Magyar: K
Rach Somerin
2 Depth of
Nihal Osi
30 Brian Wei
Jody Talon
hum wth Desire: Photography and Gl
‘-Glamour: Portraits cf Women
i clesig
35_ eter Forge: Letter to Nar
Stephanie Aon
FILM REVIEW
34. Arresting Power: Resting Palice Violence in Prdand, Oregon
ane Bod
BOOK REVIEWS
36. Fara Lane ois Pople The Potgrapt of Horace
‘Alcan Mac
Pate
37 Biopalcal Seren Image, Power andthe Nebel Bran
Jaya
39. The Faiony: Poogrply andthe Warhol G
ily Name The Sver Age Black nd White Photograph
Goda omng
41 Unekrtanding Photograph
Worle No Spent Today Bay Sale Imag
Prong
ia Received
PORTFOLIO
Live Aboard
Ingle Malbere lonFEATURE
Equivalent
Simulation:
A Conversation
with John Opera
By David LaRocca
‘hn Opera isan American photographer who works at
the intersection of photographie materiality and ight
derived absiraction. Since graduating from the Schoo!
‘of the An Instiute of Chicago (where he earned a
MEA), Opera has lived and worked in Chicago. His
‘work has been the subject of recent slo exhibitions in New York
(2015), Las Angeles (2014), and Miami (2014). The preoecupation
Of his practice inthe ks few year has centered on the relationship
bese the material origin of photographic process and the way
those processes can be ated wo express form, vesture, a
tone: Drawing on the most primitive components of imagemaking,
(Opera has reclaimed processes such asthe anthorype and eyanorype
and applied them tothe representation of abstractions as well 8
cvenday objects Especially in his reeent work, Opera addresses
peculiarity of organi, light-sensitive material that give se
two-dimensional tablets. For this reason, many’ of his recent
Pies evoke the parameters, conditions, and cfc of paimting. fs
‘order to teflct on ese latest project, especially in dhe ight of i
Tong history of work a6 photographer, I dscusted the origins and
development of Oper’ work wid him dating the winter of 2014,
via phone and email
DAVID LAROCCA: You're a photographer who is known for working at
what might be called the origins f imagemahing—that i, with light
sensitive organic material, indeed with the most lementl or rudimentary
stiles of photographic media. What are you working on now?
JOHN OPERA: Ian exhibition eld in Los Angeles in the fall of|
2014 T showed wall works that are cyanotype-oninen a
process that Ive been exploring dice 2011. During this period of
‘experimentation and production, Tye been contin
Ariss whose work returns to photography’s chemical origins while
lento orton desta art cogs te
Adoemphasze surface and materiality. Pm reminded here of Barbara
Kites cyanotype and Van Dyke brown photogenic pings
fromthe mid-to-late 1970s fr example, Cid 74/15 trom 1974)
a well at Lis Descheness silvertonedaculpral/photographie
‘works (Serapraphs #11 from 2013}. Cyanorype is one of the oldest
1 | afterimage
‘an most recognizable of all photo proceses, in part owing 10
signature Prussian blue color With this text work, however, Fe
rmanaged t0 modify the steps of the proces so the resus are not
blue pers, bu alent neutral. Thi dit in coloration ix exciting
me at least) because i wl allow me to continue experimenting
withthe pipicalty ofthe protest bul nt be bogged dow
limited, even cliché, ealorpalette—although I do love the color
blue san incroibly simple process it only requiten wat
famed and some are not. None
developing agent. Some pieces a
are behind gas. Some are in smal eon whi others re wie
These cyanotypes seem to exist somewhere between painting and
photography. Their physical qualities trade between those (wo
fepresetatonal worlds or models They eel both indexicl and ako
strangely ree of refer
DL: | can't hap but se an apparent and appealing coincidence between
‘the Blinds images (2014) and the kinds of photographs commenly made
in & chemical darkroom without negatives—namely, contact prints. Do
‘you have 2 ange ofthe rezonance ofthis latest work with your eit
Images, made when you were a teenager growing pin Butfalo, New York?
30: [suppose there i «ssc similarity etween how my plow
‘works look and how photograms lok, andl technically speaking, ll
of the cyanotype prints are contact prias, meaning the negative
required to make my images must be the same dimensions asthe
fina format sce. AP want my final image vo be 8 by 4 feet, my
‘negative must also he that sie, Deschenes's work may be instructive
Ihre, especially in how she addresses sues of tome and silhoue
fas they are expressed in respome to fightfor insane, ia her
cameraless photograph Mové #25 (2000) (Ed. now: See Aina
42,no, 5 for review of Desehenes'srecent exhibition a the Walker
‘Art Center in Minneapolis} Tauba Auerbach’ recent paintings
Ihave given san interesting way of atending to the imaging
‘specially tonal—capacities inherent in the topography of material
(ee, for example, her mesmerizing Untied (Fld seis from 2012)
‘OF course, Kates photogenic prints ako represent innova
‘our thinking about the fol, and abou two-dimensional depictions
of spatial forms; for instance, in Untied 75/7 (1973). However, 1
think wha you're referring to are the types of contact prints that
are made without a Tensor opsical projection, ‘This soften the fist
‘serese a beginning student undertakes asa part of learning how to
‘navigate an analog Maclatebonhite daizoom. I’ demonstration
of photograpty’s Fundamental nature
(Of cour, [ako see personal continuity in
you and [ made photograms together inthe basement darkroom
at Gity Honoes Seco! in Bata, beginning in 1980. "Those years
that we shot photographs as ide i Builo were about learning
how to apprelend the world through clove observation, Back then
photography was mich more I suppose one could sa tactile Gt was
alo intensely edoifeous; the smells of Dektol, D-76, stop bath,
and fare the sells of my adolescen
been intrigued bythe material nature of U
se tf
J. And Tsppose Bve aways
photogeaph image
DL: Ie’ cheering to reminisce sbout the erigins ond continuities of
‘your work (even about the smell of those darktoom chemicals-asBaraboo (2007 by ln Oper; cutesy the int
the son ofan aromatherapist | appreciate the olfactory dimension of
memory). Your awareness of—really, your concentrated intrest nthe
imatrialnatre of photography aso led to a great dal of werk onthe
relationship between physis and photography, especially i regard to
Werner Heisenberg uncertainty pine.
30: My carly work was often, and my work today co
be, informed by andl iswes around theories of
observation. This is largely due to che influence my father had
otographer. He was a wience teacher
on my development asap
wut
air in his career, he also did a stint as a geologin working
for the New Vork State highway department, During those eater
years of his career, he amassed an enormous phot
archive of work. He mostly made photographs that were for
rescarch purposes, but he alto developed a personal sensibility
and aesthete around landscape and portraiture, Hi ae the fi
photographs that moved me, I thnk parly because he made most
of them before I wat alive. They did and continue 1, posess an
immense mystery for me, I remember sneaking into those slide
boxes and looking through
the random picture of m
images, sometimes coming across
nhc or sister, fore Twas born, oF
laces he photographed were
da lot of them are the exact same sites that
myself asa newborn. Most of the
around Bulle
eo photograph thirty years later
those images were the archetypes for what I would mak later o
in my ile. Most, if mot all of his images were made with a serew-
mount Praktiea, which ended up being the very eamera I wsed to
make my fist photographs at age thirteen
But back to your mention of Heisen
my oven work, Perhaps
rg—the uncertainty
principle was cerainly an early conceptual driver for me
the idea that we are contained within the same realm that we
aviempt wo categorize, or observe. We all feel this fuzziness
ambiguity, indeterminacy
around existence, not just
10 observe subatomie pa
supreme sense of sadness ancl beauty to this experience
tue who are lucky eno
fone that I fel also saturates the paintings of Charles Burchfield,
work was a significant influence on my own landscape
raphs, and one that
il) in my work in general
always trying to maint
DL: Your photographs aderessing the somber, slema, but alo sumptucus|
rwpresentaton of imaginary partes, and works postulated but unseen by
umadedobseration—such as your series Soup (2001-02)—wee followed
by a series of works and projets that dat dety withthe representation
‘of nature qua nature, a5 it were, onthe scale of the human 2s beautify
sfteimage | 17FEATURE
‘axtrated in the monograph MPS Volume I: Catt Mon, Jha Opera,
‘Stacia Yepans (2009),
20: My work leading up w the APP book was addvessing ses
‘of nostalgia in nature photography—the “Kodak moment for
instance, composing the world as all context and yet, a the sae
time, ast of context, Photographs by Jan Dibbets proved inspiring
and ako orienting for me during tis period, expecially the way he
ted the framing of photographs vn the frame of the arcvork for
xanmple, his Tle (1990-98) comes o ming in relation to my
piece Hinde (2007), Because of my’ attention tothe frame-witin-
teframe, there was imply a lot of tension-through juxtaposition
inthis and other pees
Tax filly aware of the problematic mature of what Iwas
trying to aecomplish, or atleast revisit, bur H also fet compelled
beyond all reason to pursue making those images forthe MPS book,
‘spec alter making Roane Ke Di (2005), I almost ai after
‘encountering that naturally emergent form in the world, had)
to build an entire contest around icin order fr it o make sese
{3 at, OF course, this was ake in my DNA, 20 to speak. Those
carly photograph of my father’s inguiis into observation though
‘observation looking atthe way we look at things) started to seem
somehow knowing and haunting and necessary for understanding
something about my on relationship tothe word—Fist my father’s
‘world, then mine: cars Ie was also around dis ane that I tated |
devep an intense homesickness, something periodically striae
with co this da
DL: Andthe rare presence ofthe human figure in your wor also ocasionlly|
‘entries to that unease for instance in shots taken at Chestnut Ridge
Park, Chimney Bluffs State Pack (which feature your dad), and Zoar
Val, all in New York Stat, but perhaps most emphatically, the sublime
and haunting Borcboo (2007), where you are stranded—hypnotized?
reaming? dlious? drugged? ase of ascending boulders.
10: Yes all of those thing. Hike o think dat when human igures|
appear in my work i's no often that they do), tha they are there
fs a passive, disrete reminder thatthe observer is sill present
in all of my work. They may be stanc-ns for mysclf, ar part of |
a general acknowledgement of the existence of the observer
‘human igure in the pieees and projects you mention had a very
destabilizing elect on the work tl mainly became of wale was
eying to mee the human to point where its presence was barely
discernable and yet esentialthe figure within a realm beyond
‘human cope oF contol or comprehension.
“More importantly cae, in general, has become increasingly
{important tome in recent years as Fe continued vo consider it with
respect t0 the viewers interaction with the finshed work, When
possible, in pices from recent years (as contrasted with the works
{you cite) reproduce my sbjets at setual sie in order xt up a
certain Kind of relationship withthe viewer Instead of the earlier
instinct to acs sale atin the image, boulderto-human), the
rmore recent images are presented as 1:1. For me, this i another
valence of my thinking about “eqivalent smlatin.” where the
ewer i encountering the word as it is—in ie proper seale of|
relation and yet, obvioualy ita thoroughly transformed way.
18 | afterimage
DL: Since 2010 or so that tansfermation-which began with your
experiments in anthatying—has found you moving from the eathy
photechemicas of your youth othe nrge-formatlng-len work of he
Tagt decade, and onward into this ew space of organic erigas.
Although Vm manipulating organic compounds (that are
then exposed to light, all of my recent images are made with a
{digital SLR_ really believe thatthe creation af a work anticipates
‘what i wil ask of che viewer, and this interaction has much move
to do with the nature or with the act of looking than with any
technology used forthe recording ofan image.
DL: We are aterating here between the material cumstances that
suround your work clue, chemials, digital technology plant matter,
‘te. andthe material effects of these creations the artrksthemseres.
‘And you're saying that, atleast inthe lst half-dozen or 0 yeas isthe
cof looking at representations that ocupes your attention mre than
the conditions or qualities of he representation itself?
olutely, What a photographic image contains or depicts
fs starting to fel just as important as the fact that the image
exists in the fist place, or that a simulated representation is
allewed to be present outside of our elosed bio-optical systems
'A photographic image is « mediation that distances ux from
‘observed reality and also somehow simultaneously points us
at Pn
toward the posibility of anther parallel reality. Is mot
lisiteretel in pute photographie space as we know it today
(egy a in an inkjet photogr ere is plenty of work
Iheng made now that daes not eros over and share the con
‘of oihier media, such ax panting —but Faso think that we are
seeing an increase in crossover work generally. There are a lot
‘of paintings that address photography and lot of photographs
that address painting. Um caught up, then, in what seems to be
a bigger, broader questioning of media categories and pe
Seategorization” as we know it in at, anyway.
DL: The werk in your ent show in Mami 2s was the case ast yar in your
New York show pie (201) at Longhouse Projects us back 0
‘alin, othe provocation tit photgrachy can become panting and ti
now isla photography.
10: Facing phowgraph, there is always an awarenes fis framing
for fragmenting of perceivable reality—basiealy that here 6 a
linc content oad or beyond is edges OF course, the viewers
Privilege to what tha is exacts but sa worl we rust presume fs
thee: [can see anand the phorograpl, but L must believe dere is
2a realty post the periphery With a painting, by eanrast, there st
recess hat salty neta wot a realiy—holding the image in|
place, squeezing i into the Fame. A painting may oF may not have
ng directly to do withthe world as we know it Tecan be sow
sdssnce work or arve in our mins ind memories fll of penvonal,
imposed disorton. What 'm tying do, again especially curent
‘work, setup scenario thats halooted in the expectations of what
the experience of viewing photographic space/ reality i pes to
feel ike, while imultancously reimagining space/time aside of the
fume that is fre of predictable or recognizable awxcatons. in hin
spect, the works perhaps heave more like pangs.DL: Soitsnot the subject matter—the content—that willbe captivating
‘viewers, but something ese. What then? The nage of as you've
been saying the psychological or cognitive relations that arise between,
‘the viewer and the work?
40: For-me, the work derives from an acknossledgment of the
posibility of wanscendent reality or epiphantie vsion—even
religious vision, The notion of a transcendent reality is, of
course, a preoccupation that intimately links us with ansiquiy
om Plato (rds) to Kant (noun. So, in my small way, Pm
;e—thougl & practice of immanent, materialist
‘how we can think about the ways a medium tel
trying to exph
photography
an give rise wo images, and, it would seem, alo co thoughts
How these qualities and effects are being achicved, Think, has
to-do with the manner in which these works come i
‘by baftingly simple means. Why
Gyanotypes are mad igh
senskive compounds exist in nature? Sir John Herschel posited
that by studying photosynthesis he could develop a chemical
formula for fixing a photographie image. He most have been a
big dreamer. [like how animistic that method of inquiry is, in a
way T want to believe that Herachels ciemifi approach —a kind
of hybrid of the physical and the ‘was a defensible
ing, a8 if we Gould peoceed with the belie tal
niverse is aware of how photography. provides a way of
DL: Precisely Instead ofa photograph of nature (sy, rocks, waterfalls
Iehens=things ou have photographed nthe past wth lens and fim), we
hve nature que nature (ight activate organi cmpounds)=as if nature
‘were imaging the world from ts very ovn properties and physical structures.
Hence the appeal ovina if mate ie hs the capacity to represent
sa gan the erecting hand of an arts.
30: | think nature imaging el in that way: Lea tes eo
howe much [think abou this condition of the medium Think about
some recent panting in connection to this ide, such as that of Dan
CColen—espeially his Unidad (Bedi) (2007) and aso Joln Knuth in
is Fy Pati (2014), Kot, Forex has created the condos
in whieh nonhuman natural forces—in this case recently hatched
fiesateenisteto apply pnt on hishal. "The es go about their
Drusiness asic were. The patterns of pi “exeated™ by dhe flies woul
seem toe found, not madeat least not intentionally 3; the Hes
are inadertendy making masks oftheir natura, inainctve pathways,
A paral ine of thought is parally what le me t the concept of
simulation. Not hat peopl dou’ eonstanly frame the photographie
on (and silacra), but F think aout,
for instance, the fact that a pinhole optical projection can exist in
tain chemical compounds change when exposed
nature. Likewise,
to light Iescems to me theres something very
recognizing how curious these naturally cessing phenomena ae
in their own Hight, on thet own te
uneanny birth of photography
DL: Can yeu pinpoint haw or when these issues came to light for you?
10: All of this atention 0 medium begun when L started the
amthotypes about five years ago, My work shite away from a
tied (agusket) (2009) by isha Opera cotsy the ait
more conventions! approach to pictire-making, and tok a heawy
hhopefilly not heavy-handed) tum ward the ontological, Je
Walls shore esay “Photography and Liquid Inteligence” (189
wasa key
pration. Ive read thisshore ext dozens of tie, but
Tike a media
perhaps, Walls essay has en hoth a place to ind thoughts on
some reason Lil eur tot again and again
matters eloquently expressed and a provocation to my own further
‘experiments in a similar vein,
DL: Can we 52y, then, in 2 meaningful way, that your work with
anthotypes~and aspects of your cutrnt projects~bend the art of
painting andthe science of chemistry?
30: Definitely: However, [relly don’t think of my proces in terms
‘of whether it leans toward one disciplinary model or anothex,
Ac the end of the day [think I'm
trying to hang onto certain conditions and associations that
‘exist around deciphering photographic space—for example,
and atetch the form beyond
toward science or toward art
‘veracity of the Fantasy of it truth
‘shat we communly refer toa dhe photographic “document.” want
the viewer to recognize what isin my photos ax belonging to the
‘world, but also to somehow be forced into a position outside of|
those expectations, asin a dream or perhaps owing to a (ei)
sftermage | 19FEATURE
drug up a scenario
‘where the viewer's experience continually rfores that he or
she is looking at a representation that shares qualities with both
photographs and paintings
DL: Whator where then, isthe ole for optis—if any? Have you overcome
‘he mechanical atibtes ofthe camera and chemical aspects of ln
‘semehow return tothe radical origins of ight sentvty as animated by
‘atural matcas? Does ths move shift us sa othe arth, o activate
‘the transcendental you spoke of ere? For one's mind cou go the other
‘way=descend tothe depths—and be raw in by your work's elation to
bioluminescence and orescence, especially among deprsea creatures.
Soup cou be ite as part ofthis ajectory, no?
30: The notion of origin is a the center of my inquities I belive
Soup is surely anchored there ax well It has todo with time, of
course. What i time and how did all of these things around
1 and in-us, oF as us) evolve and grow into sueh eomplesty
traveling along some ‘conception to
entropy? How many times fas this “simulation” played out?
puter programmers are known to invoke “simmlation” when
discussing repetition in a sequence of code. Not necessarily
thinking about a cireular or eyelical form (euch as Nietasche’
‘eternal return of the same), Tam nevertheless intrigued by the
‘continual representation of nature to isell:
nd of continuum fi
Zi Aesype 2012) by John Opera; courtesy the ati
2»
Pechaps what Im really wondering about is not so much how
1 photograph i time or is abou time, but hove the representation
isitelt «kind of space or container fr time, Sine optics connect
what we see conceptually tothe act of sight—gving eredence to
the expectation (or ison) that sehen looking at a photograph
Wwe are looking at reality—we're always tying to evaluate the
degrees of distortion in a representation while simultaneously
‘knowing tha it's anchored to ae rel
DL: But the cyanotypes and anthotypes don't make this lam tothe real,
Fight? Ther subject seems to be the intimate coextension of thet form |
and content (where ther form sthel content In these hinds of erga,
light-sensitive works, theres no appeal to a representation ofthe mal,
reality or the real Opis, t would seem, have alvays tempted us to
say that we see something "nthe photograph (een if we've come to
dit thatthe “thing” Is transformed by te art of photography and the
‘medium itself), But when the lens is taken away, an the film fs taken
away, what ar we to sa is “n” these latest works? Hence my suspicion
(in a good sense) that your cyanotypes and anthotypes and related
techniques daw us back to our thinking about palting and its modes of
representation How does this else for you?
JO: Right. If you take away optice and film you're removing
the expelations associated with straight sight. Whot's left i the
posibiity of material interacting and creating something more
‘kin tothe photographic concrete, It anything occurs that feels
“optical” or perspctival, i ‘ough, 1 be
rigorous here, all2-D represcatation is just that as well Lsuppone
thatthe anthotypes and similar works fall imo this trap bi,
all abstract compositional space will whether is a pmlc of
plating marks or phovographic eapeure. What I sll can get
Away from, though, is the ides of the lens image, and it doesnt
Ihave to be fom 4 camera—or even, physiologically, fom a
wan vantage point. Call these two modes the chem-opticl
and the bio-optical All photographic material has that double
Status embeded in it. For me, that doubleness always lark in the
Dackgwound, fecding how we experience audi phorouraphic:
the haunting trace of our oxen chemical/biologcal/mechsnical
imerface ith the world. So my hope is that these works, yes,
Jeave the literal idea of a photograph behind but sill somehow
refie t let go completely of that kind of visually: Have I just
inadvertently propoied a theory of allegory for these works and
proces in creating them?
‘merely an ilo
DL: Yes, thik se, and part of your acount would the prompt us to dwell
fon the rich analogies and dlsanalgies that appear and recede as result.
‘So, can we say that your work tums our interest decidedly away from what
2 photograph depicts and toward what it materially? The image, then,
snot an image of something, but somehow Is, instead trict n image
of isl? If tha’ the as, then t's ne-o-a-hnd—an erga, alvays 2
negative as-artwrk? Ad with such singularity or lack of repreductility),
appears to find another way toward its itimac wth pling.
10: The materials (or materiality) have become more promine
in my work over the part half-daaen years of 9, For mey this
shift was about pashing against the program of prepackaged
aepocographic material and proceses (or example, the settings on of ime and place, becoming incressngly desuaturalzed (most
digital
rom traditions aavocated of elemental “technologies” of na
et) that ae exponentially estancig ts Dir, lis, ok
with handwork and labor, sel
ways Labor itself bold within unsentimental way r
ck wo origi—andl arts te
it the pity foe'a eave, nonliacar topographic space
he DAVID LAROCA, PHD, Is Visting Sel inthe Department of English at
Ahotihictpace tind tery har orem rect dcioi— — Cwil ales acter es Depart o Pilon yo SUNY
daydreaming Cran, Hes the autho of Emersons English Tels and the Net! Hstary
of Matophar (2013) an the eto of The Philsopy of Wor Fm (2014),
DL: What then shold we say i being represented in or by these works? amen ether wos.
Light? The effets of lights behavior (and thus patterns of otherwise
‘unseen physical laws)? Or natural laws more geneally—in chemistry and
physics and biclogy?
10: The images are about forces, sch a8 light, Likewise, gravity
wwe once called it “imagination.” Alot of my ideas come fron
visconny, the material and the chemical, and even molecular
interactions ‘con: ink pla Stl wil ates’ bas all these
cements of natural order, the imaged result a map of somethin
Te does seem tha artis increasingly plugin imo the same frees
ly the human
behaviors ‘The paradox for artis
vil/the simated/the schematic. We ar
OPENING SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
PICKER ART GALLERY
HAMILTON, NEW YORK COLGATE UNIVERSITY COLGATE.EDU/PICKERsented by Okicht Story, 1965, narrative suite of black-and-white
clrawings hased on blondy cighteenthceneury puppet play about last
And murderous jealousy, rendered af scrawled ot a bathroom sal,
Heater knowa af hs ram (or “coustesan”) works, particularly these
rade between 1966 and 1969, which were inapiced by gory Kabuki
and soft-core prints ofthe lat Ede period. Though they ae rather shin
idea-wis, little more than hiyoe greats processed through the 2cs-
thetic Faionable at dhe sine, these maxedeaneia painting and ilk
srccrn, with tee boldly awirac componiions ad Mores tones,
revertiles liven the Dorsky’ halls, Periaps a stronger argument
‘ould have been made for both series by rating ther to he conten
porancous growth, within Tokyo underground heats film, ana com
ss scenes ofthe eros plassmassocre aesthetic
Shiaohara's move o New York in 1969 semed so only interify is
taste foe dhe aber as he combined gavsh colors, expeessive bin,
‘even its of food o form his hybrid characters—parts Kabuki actor,
American superhero, and Hells Angel. [cis out ofthis apocalyptic
space, begining in 1973, that Shinohara prolaced his “Motoreysle
Sculpture” series choppers ofall sizes male of cardboard and resin,
‘customized with plastic bits and lly beans. The two i the present
show carry an ugly vdran and an El Roth='ype lunatic “Shinobaca
opal? no doube builds solid home forthe Japanese epcuagenaian
inglobal contemporary art. Yee se hm ring into the sunset of
Paes mia anna real somewhere bewee TOKYO
Americanay at and subcultare
—Ryan Holmberg
cHIcAgo
John Opera
ANDREW RAFACZ GALLERY
Whecher's an architerual blueprint ora photogram, thecyanatype
is infinitely alluring. Articulated hy or within 2 fel of deep Persie
‘a, images produced by this rodimentay wr chemical photographic
processcan he more graphically beguiling than even the most richly
toned silver gelatin print. John Opera knows this. "People, Placs, and
“Things,” hisexhihition of lexen modeety sized works (a 2012), ie
psionately indexed si seeming unremarkable image rypes—bosts,
pes chains, hands fowls and the porta of a young woman. Yet
the Hue splendor sturaing the steched linen support ofeach piece
‘makes these works fascinating, Opera's no-frills taxonomic aesthetic
callsto mind cyanotypes mid -ninetcenth-centry beginning British
botanist Anna Atkine's pioneering se of the proces to record impres:
sions of algae and scavreed, On first glance "People, Places, and
Things” might hae bees considered an homage as mack othe waity
ofthis carly photographic mediums ots elite visual splendor.
Ofte various compositions Opera pat into play here his plass-
bottle sil ies were of particular note, ive che degre to which they
Foreground the lighe recording phenomena atic 1 the eyanotype
rocestsef In these works, the transparency ofthe vesels
the vale range ofeach princshue, whl the harmonious groupings of
+ objets concentrated at she center ofthe picture open up a region of
‘hallo ilsonaeydepeh. Saspended in he composition with no indi
‘eaten fs hor zontal plane or grounding coordinates the Bots scm
Almost to hover above their cemely saturated rary sets linen
Support. Bottles, for example, which incorporates a cluster of five
‘ese, nclading a bulbour-hortom lab flask, vase, and ew wine
‘or iquos bottle, in effect satisfies as both genre painting” and a
exercise in the surprising visual qualities cranotype is abe o ied
“These prints are not, however “experiments” per ve. As with lla the
work Opera made for this exhib
tion, hese images are che eaeflly
exccuted result of a photographic
image made into a transparency
placed directly on top of achemi-
lly created pite of fabric and then
‘exposed to light. In other words,
these phexgcame are mot indenes of
Primary objets but rather indexes
‘oftheir photographic eaprure
Ac rough four by tree et, the
largest works on view here cook.
either a tangle of ropes ora length of
chain as their subject. Like the owe
ess, the rope compositions (Rope
and Rope ate articlaed by 30
ave spe, the twisted loops ere
Jaryeebalansed around the center of
the pictare plane, careful o main
‘ain her status as “figure,” distinct
from the deep blue of the allover
field. The subjects in Chains and
‘Chan I, however, ae rendered 38
positive forms—the object are blue, de background bare o blown
ft, revealing a ground of ra line, The designations of subject and
“groan” are slighty more ambiguous in Operas fossil based works:
for these prin the arts did employ an allover eompositicnal conceit,
=MIAMIRAIL ma
Dut then, there is a destroyed room. On the back wall, Opera's “Blinds
I” features drawn blinds ravaged and ripped apart. The piece violently
rephrases the notion of the photograph as window. We imagine
something clawing its way through the image. But despite this ferocity,
‘the image dons a professorial tone and calls upon Jeff Wall, not only
because of his iconic photograph of a wrecked bedroom, but because
Opera has somehow managed to recreate his sense of pageantry and.
depth.
‘The three-dimensional space implied in all of the photos is carried
‘over to the frames, which are wrapped with yet another series of
‘cyanotypes. These frames behave as they should—framing the
image—but then one looks up to sce that he's used the same
technique to cover two-by-fours at the top of one of the gallery walls, a
gambit which frames the entire exhibition, (as well asthe gallery's
clerestory window). I suppose this suggests a larger metaphor for the
relationship between photography and the world (and, from my own
‘experience, between art writing and art.) That is, there is always more
outside the frame, but there are always other frames.mg -
Sas
NEwcITy Art, c
Reviews, profes andrews about arin habe
ry
= Review: Histories /Photographies/DePaul Art Museum
Photography ‘aid comments
fands ,” 20:2
ebm Opera,
RECOMENDED
Although the exhibition “Histories/Photographies” purports to be a reflection onthe relations between
photography and history, it tums out to be a gathering of thirteen artists who practice a wide variety of
techniques and genres, usually with no tight inks to “history,” except inthe sense that every
photograph thet we look a s preduced through some dated process that was deployed ata particular
time in the past. No matter, whether the photographers here shoot straight or indulge in experiments,
thelr work Is often provocative and sometimes strikingly visually Ineligent. On the straight side, Alan
Cohen's sensitive black-andewiite Images of the ground atthe sites of mass murders do Ft the
show's program. His most deeply meditative and moving image i of a patch of rock-strewn earth atthe
Nazi death camp at Buchenwald from which delicate flowers blossoming from weeds have clothed the
runs inthe beautiful garb of fresh life
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tthe opposite experimental pole, and devoid of history in any sit sense, except forthe use of a
ineteenth-century technique, is John Opera's eyantype of se citembadies hands against » dark
background, each making a diferent gesture, such as pointing assertively or opening is palm
beseschingly; the hand ae arranged sa tht they donot acres each other each one indifferent to > Suburban 40)
the omer, detaches and altogether without background context (Noyes), except fr the sense of > Useinian Village/East
‘meaningless disorder that they compose in heir proximity, Cohen and Opera dwar the other ‘Yage (28)
contributors tothe show by dit oftheir abit to reader existential depth visually through iferet > Uptown 2)
‘mens ang concepts. For Cohen, elthouh carnage and ev cannot be redeemed, ie asers elt > West Loop (423)
beyond them; for Opera, our exaressive gestures are cutoff fom life when they no longer refer toa cima ree oo
particular vital situation or receive no respons. Together, the two photographers give us an affecting iene putipcasons
insight Into a broad spectrum ofthe haan condition. (Wchael Weinstein) a
Through December 8 atthe DePaul Art Museum, 935 West Fullerton > Wedla & Gences (2,187)
> Activist art (24)John Opera & Matt Sheridan
Smith
Contemporary Art
Museum St. Louis
John Opera's work combines 2 singular fascination with he vcual properties and beauty of natural and scientific phenomena, and
rigorous exploration ofthe achniques and processes by which gholographe are made, Fr his Front Room project atthe
‘Contemporary, he wil present his recent Anthotype series of works related to photography’s experimental beginnings inthe
rmig-nineteenth century. Opera uses colored solutions derived from various flower and frit extracts that are ight sensitive enough to
‘reate abstract mages that ae simultaneously plctoral and tactile. The “anthotype" procase ta4e8 upto three wooks of expoaure In
Photowraphy, West Loop ‘Add comments
RECOMMENDED
Bending slightly
forward and
[Photographed in
rofite with her
face and half of her
torso silhouetted in
shadows, John
(Opera's nubile
rude subject sits in
bed with her arm
crooked as she
raises a glass of
water to her lips
meditatvely
(Opera has shot this
dusky color image
three times with
almost identical
poses, inviting
lowers to look for the nearly imperceptible differences among them after having taken inthe scone,
Enlightenment 's achieved when we look atthe water in the halfflled glass; in one sho, the liquid has
rot yet reached the woman's lps; in the next, it has connected and is dappled with spots of light; and
‘nthe last, the lit water has forma a biaek and gray cone, One must stain to dredge oF squeeze
‘meaning out of Opera's scenes that like water are not flavored. What difference does difference make?
(ichaet Weinstein)
Through January 16 at Andrew Raface Gallery, 835 W. Washington
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Reviews, setae soe ston an Chis
EEE Review: John Opera and Amir Zaki/Shane Campbell Gallery
24 > Photography, River West |Add comments
RECOMMENDED
(Chicago's John Opera and L.A.’s Ami Zak Join forces in a compelling show. The landscape as altered by
Perspective fs atthe center ofeach artist's work. Opera's camera 's pointed toward the ethereal calm
(of Midwestern lakes and forest, translated into an aray of literal and abstract terms, Formal elements
of shape and texture are enhanced to present the spiritual intellectual instances of nature, resulting in
the bluring ofthe line separating the animate and the inanimate. Zaki, on the other hand, juxtaposes
the two. He satches wildlife from its habitat and plops it down on a manicured lawn. Photos are
reminiscent of Holywood head shots where nature isn the spotlight, placed against a neutral
background, bathed in balanced ight. Compositions are chock-full of severed limbs and distorted trees
‘manipulated and placed within the urban sprawl of sidewalk, front yards and orange traffic cones.
‘There isan attempt, however failed, at reuniting the two worlds. One photograph depicts a fragment of
1 trunk phystcally hinged to tts detached foundation and another shows such detritus gathered atthe
roots of one living tree in hapes of recanvening. (Kerisa Lang)
‘Through Fab 9 at Shane Campbell Gallery, 1494 W. Chicago.
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newaletter
Email Adress ¢Television, nature and the news, mediated
Chicago Tribune - Chicago, Il.
‘Subjects: Art exhibits ~ -Various artists
‘Author: Waxman, Lori
Date: Aug 21, 2009
Start Page: 16
Section: On The Town
Document Text
We live in a heavily mediatized world. Twitter keeps a running commentary on everything, e-mail and Skype encompass
communication, video games replace physical play, and nature herself is known through TV series like the BEC’s
“Planet Earth’ rather than direct observation. Most of this feels obligatory and completely normal by now, not a choice
but simply the way we live today, watching while the world is delivered to our screens via pixels.
But what if these mediated levels of reality were themselves subject to mediation? What if, Instead of racelving them
passively, we could make or re-make them ourselves?
"MP3 II: Curtis Mann, John Opera, Stacta Yeapanis” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography presents three very
different answers to these questions. Art has always been about making and remaking the world through individual
human perspectives, and the three emerging local photographers in this exhibition bring that role up to date.
Mann takes as his subject matter and base material one of the most ubiquitous documents of our time: the digital
photograph. Culled from online auctions, photo-sharing Web sites and estate sales, these images are nevertheless not
the stuff of family photo albums, but rather global news: pictures from a refugee camp in Kenya, a checkpoint in
Palestine, an unnamed location in Israel, another in Beirut. The sites, identified in the works’ tiles, conjure breaking
stories of humanitarian crises, rocket launches, security walls and endless ethnic conflict.
Mann works via a subtractive process, removing information from found images until they metamorphose into alternate
landscapes replete with new tragedies and strange allegories. He does this in a three-step process, by first applying
varnish to the parts of photographs he wishes to retain, then bleaching out the rest, and finally adding a few faint pencil
lines. What results are pictures of surreal color fields, strangely isolated people and utter violence ~- burned-out skies,
‘mutilated bodies, blasted buildings. Even the photo paper sustains injury, scraped to the point of rawness, punctured
fight through its shiny surface. The effect, when it works, is moving and paradoxical, as if photos of these places can't
escape their combination of beauty and suffering, even when half thoir visual data is obliterated. When it occasionally
{doesn't bad digital paintings result, and a penchant for abstraction and ambiguity tps the balance from affecting
knowledge to wilful ignorance.
‘Yeapanis tackles far more plabian stuff in her ongoing series “Everybody Hurts," in which popular television dramas
provide the source material for meticulously embroidered soreen shots of characters like Fox Mulder and Buty
‘Summers. Caught in dramatic close-ups, their familiar faces radiate seriousness, fear and concem. Meanwhile, the
translation from pixel grid to cross-stitch sampler goes seamlessly, down to the stitched-on sayings. From David Fisher,
the HBO undertaker: "Why Is this happening to me?" From Buffy, the teenage vampire slayer: "They say if you think
you're crazy, you're probably not, but I just don't know anymore," The whole provides a kind of home sweet home for
today, testifying to a new kind of common ground, as well as to the comfort of television identification and vicarious
living, even at the level of painful experiences.
Vicarious living occurs at another level entirely in the computer game "The Sims 2," which forms the basis for
‘Yeapanis's multi-part project "My Life as a Sim." But while the possiblities for digital life seem to promise an endless
array of fantasies, the extraordinary finds little place in the segment “Life Isn't Bliss. Life Is Just This. It's Living.”
‘Yeapanis's character cleans the toilet, sits on the couch, eats a sandwich, runs on a treadmill and has the occasional
breakdown,Chicago Gribune
Alas, Yeapanis's life as a Sim proves just as boring as most. Monumentalizing it as art seems more collusion than,
Except it isnt ~ or at least, it needn't be. Opera proves as much in his nature photographs of swarming birds, a small
waterfall, a frozen stream, an expanse of boulders, a broken trae limb and various stumps. More or less unremarkable,
rnone of these organic situations seems to warrant documentation ~ and yet each of them stands up to it, and how.
‘Some do s0 through sublime effect: The birds, counties white specks against a black sky, humble the viewer in their
twinkling expanse. A fow ara wondrous: The stumps rise phoenix-lke from snowy forest and hazy pond. Others ara
‘comic: An unattractively open-mouthed young man mars a sea of boulders, but also gives them a sense of scale. Still
‘others are just plain strange: a golden fire burns from within a stereotypically picturesque waterfall.
‘Nowhere, however, is nature represented nonchalantly or plainly. Through sensitive and imaginative observation, Opera
finds the extraordinary in the ordinary — or rather, he locates the potential for ito emerge through photographic
representation. The birds are printed as a negative, the stump solarized, the fire @ rare geological phenomenon framed
by a mundane Kodak moment.
Human perception ~ active, curious, bodily ~is everywhere implicated, and the world is the better fori.
"MP3 II: Curtis Mann, John Opera, Stacia Yeapanis”
‘When: Through Sept. 13
‘Whore: Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan Ave.
Price: Free; 312-663-5554 or mocp.org
‘onthetown@tribune.com
Credit: By Lori Waxman, SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
Mlustration
Caption: Photos (color): "MP3 II: Curtis Mann, John Opera, Stacia Yeapanis" is on display at the Museum of
Contemporary Photography in Chicago.= ARTFORUM
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‘All material in the Artforum Archive is protected by copyright. Permission to reprint any article from the
forum archive must be obtained from Artforum Magazine.
“MP3, Il: Curtis Mann, John Opera, and Stacia Yeapnis”
07.17.09-09.13.09 Muscum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)
‘Chosen for thelr Innovative handling of photo-based media, Curtis Mann, John Opera, and Stacia Yeapnis
—three emerging arists selected for volume 2 of the Midwestern Photographers Publication Project
series—are featured in solo shows at the Muscum of Contemporary Photography. The "MP3" exhibitions are
‘an extension of the project, which promotes established and emerging artists and aims “to give greater
recognition to photographers on the verge of national and international prominence.” Remarkably divergent in
thelr technical and conceptual strategles, the pictures featured here allow the museum to smartly evade the
politics of regionalism and career categories that justify and drive these types of award shows wt
showcasing three germane bodies of work.
John Opere's images appear brazen on st glance, shifting prosumptucusly between hard-edge abstraction
‘and romantic representation. Yet his juxtapostions of enraptured pictures of nature with geometric design
place the arte eecurely in step with trends in contemporary photography. Simple symmetrical compositions
such as Purple Diamond, 2007, face of with Baraboo, 2007, a landscape that depicts a small figure amid an
Imposing slope of craggy rocks. While Opera's work brings o mind thet of Karl Haendel, Garth Welser, and
Anthony Pearson, it remains out of reach of the perceptually curious practices of James Welling and Barbara
Kasten, whose decades of abstract and representational pictures avold analytic language games and
esthetic riddles. Stacla Yeepanis's embroidered images of televislon screens with images of Fex Mulder or
Tory Soprano also extol the pleasures of paradaxes, but in her works its the tension between identity
‘construction, media fluency, and the polities of erat that is at play
‘The jarring pictures illustrating Curtis Mann's output are remarkable In their similarity to watercolor painting
Wiping away large areas of information from photographic images gathered from the Intemet, Mann distorts
‘our ability to read his work and to understand the images’ original purpose. For example, Man Pointing (Olive
Harvest, Palestine), 2007, Is a poetically charged plece that evokes not a seasonal routine but an emotionally
pitched Image of distress. The Indeterminate white area thet Mann Introduces Into found photographs offers,
undetectable threats and existential voids that make them more like watercolors of Samuel Beckett plays
than products of photojoumalism.
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