Friday, October 22, 2010

Mutant Materials 9

Another artist I have been looking at for Mutant Materials is Canadian Jeff Wall.


Wall's illuminated images aren't technically Duratrans, they are actually silver bleach transparencies which are also called Cibachrome (Ilfochrome since 1989) I have had a look at the Ilford website for more information, but it looks like even the ilfochrome has been superceded and photographic paper is not something I wan't to get into at this time, so I'm not pursuing that one. Having said that, I do know that Cibachrome is kind of the forerunner of Duratrans in that it was the most common way of producing large format photographic images before the development of Duratrans. I haven't been able to find out exactly how Wall used the Cibachrome - the image can be transfered from a slide to large format paper/film or the image can be exposed directly onto the paper with a special camera to produce a one-off image, but the effect he has achieved is that of large format lightboxes.
I included Wall in the presentation for a couple of reasons -
1. His images are very much an early version of the Duratrans idea and must have been a great inspiration to artists such as Brown and Green in their methods
2. I love his images and feel that the way they are illuminated gives them such a powerful aura that is quite different to those of Brown and Green or Janet Laurence.
At the time that he made these images, Wall was very interested in Romanticism and the cultural history of the 19th century. He talks about using his works as a crystal and of passing his ideas through a historical prism that has been inspired by other works.
Works in particular that I looked at are -


Destroyed Room 1978. This work was inspired by Delacroix's Death of Sardanapalus a work which to wall signified the end of a grand political era that was quickly replaced by an era of introvered domesticity that seemed to him to simmer with unresolved violence.












Picture for Women 1979. This image is a detailed study of Manet's The Bar , a painting which fascinated Wall for it's revelations of the social structures prevalent at the end of the 19th century.

















Restoration 1993. This picture is not directly inspired by another work but is an example of Wall working with his ideas on how we connect with our history.






tp://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/image/roomguide/rm1_destroyed_room_lrg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/rooms/room1.shtm&usg=__utM1EQBy77dF076PEkW16V1fQRs=&h=505&w=750&sz=93&hl=en&start=0&sig2=xAttXT3a5UOH8UIsSICQcw&zoom=1&tbnid=QNRnW98djYZ0FM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=167&ei=VY_HTPqFHNSVcfO2rbIF&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDestroyed%2BRoom%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1589%26bih%3D1233%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=121&vpy=81&dur=669&hovh=184&hovw=274&tx=136&ty=96&oei=VY_HTPqFHNSVcfO2rbIF&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=70&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0




http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eugenedelacroix.org/The-Death-of-Sardanapalus-1827.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.eugenedelacroix.org/The-Death-of-Sardanapalus-1827.html&usg=__AGc8GeAKUi1gHdxzI_-6dBxrbhQ=&h=402&w=470&sz=48&hl=en&start=0&sig2=cqvoyYi4vJsXH5SdvSVusQ&zoom=1&tbnid=0_auMQdmtzPMkM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=172&ei=8I7HTLPDCcS8cZCujbIF&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddeath%2Bof%2Bsardanapalus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1589%26bih%3D1233%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=508&vpy=74&dur=380&hovh=147&hovw=172&tx=116&ty=127&oei=8I7HTLPDCcS8cZCujbIF&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=69&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0


http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://courses.washington.edu/hypertxt/cgi-bin/12.228.185.206/html/viewer/jeffbar2_400.jpg&imgrefurl=http://viewoncanadianart.com/2008/01/08/thoughts-on-jeff-wallfrom-the-ft/&h=294&w=400&sz=28&tbnid=Xrv9AdfzuPTNvM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPicture%2Bfor%2BWomen%2BJeff%2BWall&zoom=1&q=Picture+for+Women+Jeff+Wall&usg=__5NK27uC63rNpSWarVnjgtBB2rYw=&sa=X&ei=tI_HTKWYBYyycY6l4LEF&ved=0CBkQ9QEwAA


http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.daverobinson.id.au/manet_bar_folies_bergere.jpg&imgrefurl=http://warmwarmerdisco.wordpress.com/tag/rull-gud-dj/&h=461&w=615&sz=73&tbnid=QmYYljYdeowXYM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3DManet%2Bthe%2Bbar&zoom=1&q=Manet+the+bar&usg=__kJGWShYy1bxMa_NjGa-q8MW2QNg=&sa=X&ei=-o_HTJvsEIWwcfSt-IUO&ved=0CB4Q9QEwAQ


http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A7826&page_number=3&template_id=1&sort_order=1

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