MUSÉE P HOTO
NO. 14 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
ADAM FUSS BILL VIOLA NASA FABIAN OEFNER RACHEL ROSE ROBERT LONGO SHAMUS CLISSET STEVE MILLER WIM DELVOYE TAL DANINO VIK MUNIZ DAVID GOLDES JAN STALLER ELLEN JANTZEN JULIAN CHARRIERE MARCUS DESIENO MICHAEL JANTZEN PEGGY AHWESH THOMAS STRUTH SUZANNE ANKER MARVIN HEIFERMAN PENELOPE UMBRICO JULIUS VON BISMARCK LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON OLIVER CHANARIN & ADAM BROOMBERG AND A COLLECTION OF EMERGING ARTISTS
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MUSÉE MUSEEMAGAZINE.COM
INTERNATIONAL EDITION NO. 14
FOUNDER / EDITOR IN CHIEF ANDREA BLANCH CREATIVE DIRECTOR SAM SHAHID ART DIRECTOR MATTHEW KRAUS
EDITORIAL ADVISOR STEVE MILLER EDITORIAL DIRECTORS ELLEN SCHWEBER, ANN SCHAFFER
GUEST CURATOR MARVIN HEIFERMAN
PHOTO EDITORS ASHLEY COMER, NICOLE KOURI WRITERS / EDITORS J. HUTT, ARTHUR MILLER, WILLIAM SIMMONS, C.T. O’BRIEN, MELISSA MAEHARA, KELLY KORZUN, NICOLE KOURI, MIKAELA ABELA RETOUCHER MARICELA MAGANA
MUSÉE TEAM XIAOLI CHANG, JIAN YIANG
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Cover Image: Shamus Clisset, Builder Destroy (Acid God), 2014.
©2016 MUSÉE MAGAZINE. REPRODUCTION WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.
INTERNATIONAL EDITION NO. 8 VOL. 1
MUSÉE MUSEEMAGAZINE.COM
INTERNATIONAL EDITION NO. 14
3 EDITOR’S LETTER
BY ANDREA BLANCH
140
NASA: CLIMATE CHANGE
4 SHAMUS CLISSET
BY ANDREA BLANCH
148
EMERGING ARTISTS
12 SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
JOSH SHAGAM, ROBIN CRACKNELL, CARLO RUSCA SUZANNE ANKER
18 LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON
BY WILLIAM J. SIMMONS
24 EMERGING ARTISTS I
64 SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
BY ANDREA BLANCH
STEFAN BATISTA, MICO PAVLOVIC BY ANDREA BLANCH
86 SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
170
104 EMERGING ARTISTS EVGENY MOLODTSOV, ERAN GILAT, DOMINIQUE PHILIPPE BONNET BY ANDREA BLANCH
120 SPOTLIGHT ARTIST 126 EMERGING ARTIST
OLIVER CHANARIN & ADAM BROOMBERG
180
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
184
EMERGING ARTIST
PENELOPE UMBRICO
186
BILL VIOLA
194
EMERGING ARTIST
198
SPOTLIGHT ARTISTS
BY MUSEE JERRY TAKIGAWA
JULIUS VON BISMARCK, MARCUS DESIENO DAVID GOLDES
BY ANDREA BLANCH
128 RACHEL ROSE
EMERGING ARTISTS
BRICE KRUMMENACKER JAN STALLER
68 EMERGING ARTISTS
110 WIM DEVOYE
164
BY ANDREA BLANCH
BY ARTHUR I. MILLER
ELLEN JANTZEN
52 TAL DANINO & VIK MUNIZ
92 ADAM FUSS
FABIEN OEFNER
BY STEVE MILLER
46 SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
72 STEVE MILLER
154
SASHA TAMARIN, ROBERTA TRENTIN, M. APPARITION
GERGELY SZATMARI, HENRY SANCHEZ, BROOK GOLDMAN
30 ROBERT LONGO
BY ISABELLE HAY
JULIAN CHARRIERE LINDA ALTERWITZ
BY ANDREA BLANCH
136 EMERGING ARTISTS
204
NASA: SPACE
210
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
218
EMERGING ARTIST
220
MARVIN HEIFERMAN
236
EMERGING ARTIST
MELISSA GAUDET
238
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST
PEGGY AHWESH
244
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE
252
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
ATMAN VICTOR, NICK VAN TIEM
MUSÉE MAGAZINE. ESTABLISHED 2011.
BY J. HUTT MICHAEL JANTZEN NETTA LAUFER BY STEVE MILLER
BY MELISSA MAEHARA
2
E D I TO R ’ S L E T T E R
b y An d re a Bl a nch
The thought of doing a Science issue made me uneasy. Be-
epic proportions. Good friends, Steve Miller and Longo,
sides dissecting frogs and dating an immunologist, I was
discuss everything from nuclear bombs, to wave theory,
completely out of my comfort zone. Though, I realized,
to the blackboard in Einstein’s office. Pioneer and video
as new discoveries and images abound on a daily basis,
veteran, Bill Viola, with the assistance and support of his
science is the new sexy.
partner and executive studio director, Kira Perov, takes a
To produce this issue I called on my panel of experts:
more spiritual route, meditating on universal and ephem-
Steve Miller, a multi-media artist with numerous solo mu-
eral themes that come to life in his work. With a slew of
seum exhibitions, the author of several books, and who
imitators, no one shapes time quite as masterfully as he.
has worked in this area longer than anyone else I know –
At a friend’s cocktail party, I was introduced to Adam
without his help this issue would not be what it is; Marvin
Fuss. The Beatle’s quote, ‘I get by with a little help from
Heiferman, photography expert, curator, this issue’s guest
my friends,’ seems to be a running theme in the making
editor, and author of Photography Changes Everything; and
of this issue. Through Fuss’s work we return to traditional
Arthur Miller, author of Einstein, Picasso and Insights of Ge-
methods of photography. He created the largest daguerre-
nius, to name a few, who knows more about art than any
otype ever made and employs camera-less work – a har-
physicist I’ve encountered.
kening back to early photo-gram techniques.
I was having dinner with my friend William J. Simmons
Our younger artists, can be found on the pulse of the public
who writes for such publications as Art Forum, Interview,
scene. The self-taught Fabien Oefner relies on an inherent
and Crush Fanzine, etc. Upon mentioning the possibility of
swiss-precision to execute scientifically impressive works.
this ‘Science’ issue, he suggested the artist Lynn Hershman
His 2013 TEDTalk garnered him 2 million views and com-
Leeson: groundbreaker, innovator, MacArthur Award ge-
mercial projects with such iconic brands as Ferrari. Our
nius, and one of the original artists – and woman – to work
youngest featured artist, Rachel Rose, wowed me at The
in technology, who, today, is finally getting her due.
Whitney, upon the opening of her first solo exhibition in
The issue had to show, as I said, that science is sexy. It
the U.S. Her video-work that I saw there is mesmerizing.
needs to speak to the appeal and interest that science has
We step into a voyeuristic world with the brilliant Olivier
in our present-day. Belgian artist Wim Delvoye came to
Chanarin and Adam Broomberg, in their newest book Spirit
mind. His sex x-rays, with titles such as Lick, Blow, Kiss,
is a Bone. They create hollow, mask-like portraits taken from
are compelling and audacious. They view sexual acts
Russian facial-recognition software that produce an eerie,
through the internal composition of the body, making us
otherworldly effect. Our cover artist Shamus Clisset, uses the
see – quite literally – sex in an entirely different way.
character Fake Shamus to enter ‘magically’ rendered worlds.
I had seen Tal Danino and Vik Muniz’s presentation of Pe-
Wacky science-fiction and looming predictions of our plan-
tri, a project with Le Bernardaud, which imposes bacteria-
et’s future meet on digitally rendered landscapes where Fake
dwelling petri dishes onto porcelain dinnerware. Danino
Shamus, Clisset’s alter-ego, wears many costumes.
and Muniz’s collaboration becomes an important resource
Isaac Newton once said, “Energy is neither created nor
for the public and art world. As Delvoye re-visualizes sex,
destroyed, but transferred into different forms,” which
Danino and Muniz encourage us to see and think about
is why this issue feels powerful and essential. I love the
bacteria differently.
process of discovery, which is what this issue is all about:
One may ask, why Robert Longo? Why not Robert Longo?
a new, rich territory for making art. We can’t know where
His art so deftly transforms photographs into hyper-real-
this energy will take us in the future, but I know I want to
istic drawings: sculptural excavations in charcoal of truly
be there to see it.
Robert Longo. Untitled (Home, Earth 3), 2005.
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S H A M U S C L I S S E T th e fu ture rend ered
ANDREA BLANCH: Two of your pieces, Mr. Realistic
almost like the two paths split: here’s the one path taken
(Keeping America Clean) (2014) and Builder Destroy
and the other one. In the 3D world you don’t have to fol-
(Acid God) (2013), depict a person inhabiting a trash cov-
low any literal narrative; you create a library of different
ered, post-apocalyptic environment. Where did the idea for
objects and scenarios. Some things from before end up in
this world come from? Is it a version for our own world?
pieces that come later, other things are hinting at things
Is it an omen for the way we mistreat our environment?
that are going to come later that I don’t make – it’s all over the place. But all of the ideas are happening simultane-
SHAMUS CLISSET: Yeah. When I got into working in 3D,
ously for me. It just depends on which one I’m working
my original approach was to realize that this 3D world was
on at the moment, that’s the one that will get finished first.
something analogous to our own world – it was this new, undiscovered territory that you’re creating while explor-
ANDREA: It’s totally endless! You have to cut it off in
ing it. All of this frontier imagery started to come into the
your head.
earlier work, which was a lot about conquering a frontier in American history, but very much in light of where we’ve
SHAMUS: Yeah. Every finalized piece that you see has
ended up and how we’ve conquered it. But, where are we
gone through dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of it-
now? We’ve paved it all over. My parents live in Colorado,
erations before I decide that that’s the final one.
which has become one of the most suburbanized… ANDREA: You insert yourself into your work in the form ANDREA: Where?
of an alias called Fake Shamus. How has Fake Shamus’ personality changed and evolved over the years? Is that
SHAMUS: The area outside of Denver and Boulder. It’s
what you just said or…
where I grew up. Back in the 70s and 80s, a lot of people went there to get back to nature, that’s why my parents
SHAMUS: Sort of, yes. This character wasn’t necessarily
moved there. In the meantime, it’s become the same sub-
supposed to be me, but he was a way for me to put a char-
urban wasteland that you see everywhere across the coun-
acter in there and make references to my own history and
try. The imagery from my earlier work was commenting
obsessions. He’s not literally an alter ego, but he’s someone I
on that transition, which led towards this post-apoca-
can play around with in that space. I give him superpowers
lyptic thing. Keeping America Clean is interesting because
and create these surreal environments that he can explore.
the figure in all of my works comes from one figure that evolves from one piece to the next, but I consider him the
ANDREA: What are your own obsessions?
same character through each iteration. At the beginning, he was that destructor-type character, the explorer. Then,
SHAMUS: Thinking about where we are at in terms of
he becomes someone magical who cleans everything up
digital media and where that’s gotten us. Last night, I was
from the destruction he had left in his wake. In a narra-
talking with a friend at the studio about how we all have
tive, your mind goes off on tangents. So I might think of
these supercomputers in our pockets now, in the form of
something, and then I make a picture that’s based on one
the iPhone. These things can do more processing-wise than
idea that I had, and something in that will remind me of a
computers could do just recently. Yet, what does everyone
different possibility. Then I’ll go and make a picture that’s
end up doing with that? No one fully understands it except
Portrait by Andrea Blanch.
5
In my mind, there’s an element of a weird religious devotion to these devices and a supernatural connection to them...
the people building them, like Steve Jobs. We have all of the
more of a discussion. I’m interested in how everything
technology and potential – anyone can sit down and make
we encounter – even though it feels very physical – on
amazing things now – but it hasn’t brought us any further.
the microscopic level, we’re dealing with energy. There’s
We have no idea how these things actually work, so it almost
no physicality to it, just a lot of empty space with electric
becomes a magical thing: you just have faith that it does
and chemical bonds. With 3D, you’re making objects that
work. In my mind, there’s an element of a weird religious
are pure illusion. They’re not really there at all.
devotion to these devices and a supernatural connection to them, so I’m playing with these ideas of the digital mixed
ANDREA: How did you gravitate towards digital art?
with all this American history, frontier stuff. I’m not the kind
What about it provides a larger playground for your
of artist that sits down and has a definite concept; every pic-
expression?
ture is a new thing where I’m just letting things happen. SHAMUS: I started out as a painter, then I got really fasANDREA: Would you link your work to science in any way?
cinated with Photoshop in college over twenty years ago. I kept painting for a long time, but I slowly gravitated to-
SHAMUS: I think it’s less science and more…
wards this digital tool because it allowed me to get away from the physical. I went from painting on canvas to paint-
ANDREA: Technology?
ing directly in Photoshop. In the early 2000s, I started producing images in 3D rendering programs that were start-
SHAMUS: There’s a quote by Arthur C. Clarke saying:
ing to look very realistic – it took this flat surface of the
“Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet.” I’m
digital painting to an extra dimension. The 3D stuff was the
not obsessed with the technology, I’m more interested in
next logical step from there. I just taught myself everything
the idea of building something in this 3D world that has
I could and that’s where I ended up, but it all comes back to
no physical presence – it’s just data that has very compli-
that idea of wanting to distance myself from the physical.
cated technical reasons for being the way it is. Underlying that, as a bigger picture, is that idea of working in
ANDREA: A lot of popular digital, mostly Internet art, ex-
this nonexistent space.
ists in the realm of the uncanny valley or is glitch art, while your work is hyper realistic. What about this sense of real-
ANDREA: What would you like the audience to come
istic finesse is appealing to you and the goals of your work?
away with? Do you care about what people think? What are you trying to provoke?
SHAMUS: That’s a really good question. There’s more and more digital work out there and a lot of younger
SHAMUS: I want people to understand how the things
artists doing all kinds of different work. I don’t dismiss
are made, when I tell them that this is, for instance, a 3D
the glitch stuff at all, but what I find interesting is this
rendering. With any new medium, that’s something you
space in between the very real and the very unreal. With
always struggle with. It’s just a matter of people becom-
a 3D rendering, the space and the forms are very real, yet
ing familiar with the digital tools, but you have to know
there’s something clearly off about it. That’s the space,
that to fully grasp it. At the same time, I want it to be
visually and perceptually, that I’m really interested in. I
Shamus Clisset. Bambaataa in the Desert (Mirage Version), 2015.
6
7
8
I see the 3D world as the closest thing to thinking about something and making it happen.
love that 3D rendering is used in most practical purposes
ANDREA: So you incorporate a lot of humor into your
such as product pre-visualization or architecture.
work, but unlike a lot of digital art, you don’t rely on glitches for laughs. In fact, it’s easy to mistake your
ANDREA: Would you say that Fake Shamus is a form of
work for photography. Do you strive to instill a sense of
self-portraiture or self-invention?
suspension of disbelief in your viewers?
SHAMUS: I started with the concept of him as a digital
SHAMUS: Yes, sometimes I want viewers to be complete-
Golem. When I first got into 3D, I was reading a lot about
ly doubting what they’re seeing. They think what they’re
the Golem myth and something just clicked for me: that
seeing is tricking their brain, yet they know it can’t be real.
you can make this sort of clay, figure-like creation and
I build things in my scenes to look almost photorealistic,
there were a lot of similarities in the way you were bring-
but I think there are characteristics of them that don’t quite
ing it to life in the digital sense. Everything you tell the
make it all the way there. That’s what makes it interesting.
computer to do is followed literally, completely literally. Anything that goes wrong is actually your fault. There’s
ANDREA: Would you consider your digital work a form
a lot of Golem mythology where that same thing happens
of photography, sculpture, or painting?
– you tell it to do something and it takes it very literally, and ends up demolishing a city or whatever. Over time,
SHAMUS: It’s something completely different. Obvi-
it’s almost like I wanted to give him a life of his own.
ously, there are elements of all of those processes built
So instead of him just following my words – the instruc-
into it because you’re building visual sculptures. But then
tions that I gave him – I wanted him to become more of
you’re giving them color, tone and texture through more
my nemesis, or someone who was taking over the world
of a painting process. Then you create the final rendered
as I was creating it. I was building these environments
image with a virtual camera within the software, which
and putting him into it, and everything he touched he
has all the characteristics of a real camera. So you’re play-
inhabited and made trashy. There are a lot of references
ing with all of these different things, but it’s not equal to
to low-culture, especially in the earlier work.
any of those original mediums.
ANDREA: Who are your artistic influences, both digital
ANDREA: I’m waiting for the day when you can just talk
and analog?
to your computer and it will do what you say, so I don’t have to learn how to do all of this.
SHAMUS: Most of my favorite artists are painters from growing up. A lot of them have an irreverent streak, I’d
SHAMUS: That’s actually one of the links I think about
like to say, like Sigmar Polke, Kippenberger, Mike Kelley.
all the time. My problem with painting was my frustra-
Polke’s paintings from the 60s, 70s, 80s were a huge influ-
tion with it not being able to come out the way I was pic-
ence on how serious you should take the art world or art
turing it. I see the 3D world as the closest thing to think-
in general. There’s an aspect of him being very serious
ing about something and making it happen; the digital
about making art that’s not entirely serious – I see myself
stuff will come directly out of our heads and we won’t
and my goals in the same way.
even have to touch anything.
Shamus Clisset. Astronaut, 2015.
9
I think, in the mass sense, in our daily lives, we’re now so connected, but at the same time we all feel distanced from each other.
ANDREA: Do you feel your day work informs your artwork?
go back and work on something else. If you make the object correct in a real world way, it will spit out a picture of it
SHAMUS: Not so much. The work I’m doing is very Pho-
that looks real with all of the correct shading and highlights.
toshop based; I do the Photoshop stuff with my eyes closed.
That magical process is what sucked me into it.
It comes very naturally to me now, because I’ve been doing it for so long. It sets up the perfect scenario for me – I can
ANDREA: Have you ever experimented with physical
be doing the work without being emotionally invested in it.
sculpting media or have you ever considered it?
ANDREA: Do you think we’re failing or succeeding digi-
SHAMUS: I have considered it a lot. But, because of my core
tally? Where do you think we’re at with that?
concept of having something not physical, making it a lump of plastic, or just another sculpture, kills the magic for me.
SHAMUS: I think we’re in a very weird place with all of this technology. In the scientific world, it’s making
ANDREA: What about Marvel Comics? I can see your
amazing things happen, but on a daily basis there are
Fake Shamus in there.
things that we all hoped we would already have figured out. We don’t have flying cars yet, but it’s getting there.
SHAMUS: Oh, for sure. It’s just something that has to
Having self-driving cars is going to be amazing. I think,
come out of the process naturally or play a specific role in
in the mass sense, in our daily lives, we’re now so con-
that process, but it hasn’t clicked for me there yet.
nected, but at the same time we all feel distanced from each other. So there’s a weird two-edged element.
ANDREA: What are you working on at the moment? What are you and Fake Shamus excited about working
ANDREA: Why would you feel distanced if you don’t talk?
on in the future?
SHAMUS: Right, exactly. So all of these tools that were meant
SHAMUS: I’m bringing my work back a notch to the
to bring everyone together are used to spy on everyone. Ev-
hyper-real, but working on compositions and scenarios
eryone’s got Facebook, Twitter and you get these little snippets
that have a glitch aesthetic. The way I’ve set it up has
of what’s going on, but you don’t have that real connection.
a sort of chaos structure to it. I think I want to explore that a little bit more – taking elements of one picture
ANDREA: Your pieces are so detailed and complex that
and transposing them into different pictures. If you see
they take weeks to render. How does this lengthy finish-
the pictures side by side, you’ll make little connections.
ing process impact your creative process?
You’ll see things being moved, transformed into something else, re-contextualized. Working in 3D means you
SHAMUS: It’s a natural part of the process and it doesn’t
have all these different things you can draw from. I like
actually hinder anything. All of the work goes into building
pictures that really play off of each other in that way. For
the scene and the objects, getting the materials and the lights
example, “Beeramid,” that big beer pyramid of mine, and
right. When I’ve decided it’s done, I just hit render and let
how it relates to a Christmas tree. Not just visually, but
my computer do it for a week or two. In the meantime, I can
also conceptually. That’s interesting to me.
Shamus Clisset. Fly Ghost (Raver Lambo). 2015.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
SUZANNE ANKER
Suzanne Anker, Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 01, 2013
12
SUZANNE ANKER
Suzanne Anker, Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 07, 2013
13
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
SUZANNE ANKER
Suzanne Anker, Top: Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 03; Bottom: Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 08, 2013
14
SUZANNE ANKER
Suzanne Anker, Top: Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 04; Bottom: Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 09, 2013
15
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
SUZANNE ANKER
Suzanne Anker, Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 02, 2013
16
SUZANNE ANKER
Suzanne Anker, Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) 05, 2013
17
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
LY N N H E R S H M A N L E E S O N si g ni f i ca nt co mmi tment b y W i l l i a m J. Si mm o ns The best artists are so avant-garde that their work baffles their
Using technology in art is not only for men. Ada Lovelace
contemporaries and requires a new set of interpretational and
wrote the first computer program between 1842 and 1843,
art historical tools in order to make sense of their advance-
but she was not credited for 100 years. Mary Shelley wrote
ments. We are only just now beginning to understand the
the first book referencing artificial intelligence in 1818 with
extraordinary contributions to Minimalism made by Miriam
Frankenstein. Hedy Lamarr invented spread spectrum
Schapiro and Judy Chicago after years of focusing on the ac-
technology, which is the basis for the cellular technology.
complishments of male artists on the East Coast. Lynn Her-
The importance of the innovation in technology that has
shman Leeson, unlike many other artists, seems to welcome
come from women is only being recently acknowledged.
the fact that she was, and continues to be, so tapped into the
My work that uses technology began in the 1960s, first
vanguard that her work from the 1960s onward defies critical
with a mistake on a Xerox machine, which I liked and
articulation. In fact, by requiring us to think with more nuance
kept reproducing. Then I incorporated sound as an exten-
about the role of technology and gender in our formulation of
sion of what I call the Breathing Machines – wax casts that
discourses surrounding photography, performance, film, video,
emit sounds of breathing or giggling when approached by
and sculpture, she has enacted a completely new understand-
the viewer. They can even talk to the viewer. These pieces
ing of postwar art. We can never understand conceptualism in
were not exhibited until last year at my retrospective at
the same way after experiencing Hershman Leeson’s astonish-
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM). Be-
ing excavations of the intellectual and artistic possibilities of
fore that, people said they were not art, because media
changing technologies.
was not art. One piece that talked: Self Portrait as Another
Despite any resistance that she encountered in the art world,
Person (1965) closed down an exhibition at the University
Hershman Leeson has pulled 18-hour days every single day
Art Museum in Berkeley because the curators insisted it
for over 40 years. Aside from her work discussed in this in-
was not art. I like using technologies and innovations of
terview, which are held in prestigious museums and private
the present in my work because it offers more opportu-
collections across the world, Hershman Leeson also premiered
nities than dealing with the past. I wanted to use things
the landmark documentary !Women Art Revolution in 2011.
that were in the process of being invented, rather than
Additionally, she wrote, directed, and produced three other
trying to do things that were already in the dialogue. It
feature films starring Tilda Swinton that have been screened
progressed systematically from the sound sculptures to
internationally: Conceiving Ada (1997), Teknolust (2002), and
the site-specific works, which had a flowchart for how
Strange Culture (2007). An Emeritus Professor at the Uni-
you navigated them. Time and space, and modularity and
versity of California at Davis and the A.D. White Professor-
video were compressed into Lorna (1983), which is consid-
at-Large at Cornell University, Hershman Leeson was also
ered the first interactive laser-disc artwork.
a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Alfred P. Sloan
It took 25 years for Lorna to be seen and acknowledged.
Foundation Prize for Writing and Directing. To the benefit of
Once people started thinking about the ramifications of
artists and researchers across the world, the Stanford Univer-
an interactive art videodisc, and what that meant for a
sity library has also acquired her working archives.
fractured narrative, or began considering virtual reality and placing the viewer inside the art space, then that
In the following, Hershman Leeson discusses the ramifications
just extended into the next work, Deep Contact (1984),
of her historical work as she moves even further into uncharted
that uses a touch screen to allow one to virtually touch a
aesthetic territory.
woman’s body. This invented various adventures. It ref-
Portrait by Andrea Blanch.
19
erences physical and sexual abuse and the fact that when
didn’t find my work accessible in the 1960s and 70s, and
you touch a body, you open multiple paths that one could
they didn’t know what to do with it. Now they do. They’re
encounter. This led to my use of a stereoscope in Room of
not bothered by the date it was made and have a new ex-
One’s Own (1990-3), where you can actually control the
perience as a result. I made these things decades ago and
action based on what you look at. It actually incorporates
it seems that I had to wait for the Millennial generation to
the viewer’s eye into the artwork, making the viewer into
grow up, as they are the ones who understand these proj-
a voyeur. From that came America’s Finest (1993-4), an
ects. You deal with the time you’re living in, and the tools,
interactive rifle with a surveillance system that allowed
inventions, and opportunities of that time. As new tech-
you to see the past and the future simultaneously. The
nologies develop, we have to think of them in a utopian
action of pulling a trigger implicates the viewer in an ag-
way to enhance our stay on this planet, while remember-
gressive act being captured on camera. With the telero-
ing the potential for horror that is a possibility as well. You
botic dolls from The Dollie Clone series (1995-8), I was
have to maintain optimism, because that brings you to a
thinking about how, by using cameras in the dolls’ eyes,
form of belief that subverts the risks, danger, and fear.
the viewer could become a virtual cyborg as they look at
These projects take time and don’t happen overnight.
the dolls and control their movements.
They’re all authored by me and my team, and we don’t
In this way, my work has always been a dialogue and a
go out and buy software to use. Most times, in fact, the
conversation. I use the viewer as part of the piece. People
software does not exist; we create it. This combination of
Lynn Hershman Leeson. Above: Cabbage; Opposite: Strawberry Noir; From the Injectable Mutation series and Infinity Engine. Following spread: Wallpaper, from The Infinity Engine, 2012-2013. Courtesy Bridget Donahue Gallery.
20
a team is important; it’s like making a movie. That’s what
have had to declare itself a genetics lab to allow the inclu-
drives the final project as it gets born. When you are deal-
sion of the fish.
ing with all of these possibilities, you find experts to col-
What I’m concentrating on now is a film about the artist
laborate with. There is a historical precedent for this. For
and activist Tania Bruguera. It is focused on a conversa-
example, Billy Klüver’s Experiments in Art and Technol-
tion between Tania and the doctor, Dr. Frank Ochberg,
ogy (E.A.T.), created in 1967, paired artists and scientists.
who named post-traumatic stress disorder and is an ex-
As for my current projects, I would like to bring The Infin-
pert on Stockholm syndrome. We went to visit him in
ity Engine (2013-14) to the United States. That’s my major
Michigan and did ten sessions back-to-back. Tania is a
work of the decade. I’m not quite finished yet but I think
great artist, and we are thinking through how her artistic
it could be ready to show soon, and it will be much more
decisions make reference to personal and familial experi-
advanced than it was at my retrospective. It was more
ences, as well as the politics of censorship and repression
resolved when it was shown at Modern Art Oxford the
in Cuba. It was a really fascinating journey. I don’t want
following summer. Every audience is different though.
to distill it by putting in reenactments or other interviews,
It was successful in England and Germany, but I would
because that’s really not what it’s about. The role of tech-
be curious to know how American audiences would re-
nology here is precarious. PTSD fractures your memory,
spond. We would be able to do things in the United States
like an erased hard drive, and there are drugs that can
that we couldn’t do in Europe; like have GMO fish, which
help, but is that what we want? The scars of life are valu-
was difficult to have under German law. ZKM would
able and help us navigate the future.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Gergely Szatmari, Scientist with an X-ray telescope.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Henry G. Sanchez (English Kills Project), Grass Shrimp (Palaeomonetes pugio), 2015.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Brooke Goldman, Cacti, 2014.
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R O B E R T LO N G O c ar vi n g the ep i c
STEVE MILLER: What’s it like to draw the Cosmos? Not
during the first time there were images of the Earth from the
many people have the balls to draw the Cosmos.
Moon. That was incredible to me, the idea that these guys could see the shape of the Earth, and see how round it was.
ROBERT LONGO: I realize I am interested in an ability to
As a kid, I remember once at the beach, I swear I could see
see these inaccessible objects. It goes back to death. I have
the curve of the Earth. I swear I could see the horizon. It’s
this fantasy that when I die, and my soul is floating out
not there but I still pretend I can see the curve of the Earth.
there, I’ll get to see the Earth. I’ll get to see the Moon, the stars. Then, I said why the fuck wait? I’ll do it myself. I
STEVE: This issue is about science, and I think that the
want to make the stuff I can’t see.
reason that I really got into thinking about you for this
For the past several years, I have been thinking about
was because of the bomb series from 2003 that you titled
how, as artists, we are blind. We can’t see how other
The Sickness Of Reason.
people see our work. It’s the same thing that drives us: to make things that we can’t see. The only real way we
ROBERT: Science is interesting because we want to be-
can see them is by making them. It’s really very hard to
lieve in it. We used to believe that science and technology
explain to someone the compulsion, and the desire, and
would save us. Now we’re starting to think it’s going to
the obsession to make work that is driven by this desire
kill us. The difference between our generation and the gen-
to make things that we can’t see.
eration of my kids is that we dealt with nuclear or atomic
I remember the experience of producing the first Earth
threats, while they are dealing with bio-genetic fear. It’s re-
that I made. It felt as if I was out in space looking at this
ally radically different, the idea of redesigning us, where
glass ball. It made me go back to Hieronymus Bosch’s
the interface between man and machine collides.
doors of The Garden of Earthly Delights. When you close
My bomb series, Sickness of Reason is inspired by Goya’s
the doors of The Garden of Earthly Delights there is,
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. Actually, one of
painted on the back of the doors, an image of a glass ball
the bombs that I made looks a lot like Goya’s painting
that has a flat Earth in it, which I think is amazing.
The Colossus. I always thought that looked like an atomic
For one of the big star fields that I created, I first project-
bomb. I try to make art as if I am tuning an old radio:
ed a Jackson Pollock painting over the paper’s surface.
if I turn the knob too much one way or another, I lose
I then sketched the basic structure of the Pollock paint-
it — it’s really important that I find this balance between
ing, and then projected a nebula on top of that. I basically
something that’s highly personal, and at the same time
made Jackson’s nebula. I kept thinking of this idea of in-
socially relevant. And if I can find that balance, it makes
telligent design: trying to play God in a way.
sense for me to investigate it. Each series leads me to the next. Before the drawings of
STEVE: Pollock said, ‘I am nature.’
bombs, I was making wave drawings. Then 9/11 happened, and I started incorporating the smoke from 9/11
ROBERT: I know. I thought about that so much. His
into the drawings. Someone sent me an image of the tow-
paintings are really quite profound in that way.
ers falling down, and when I printed the image, it came
These are images that we want to see because the only way
out of the printer upside-down. I thought, “The image
that we’re going to see them is when we’re dead – or at least
of the buildings beneath the cloud of smoke looks like a
that’s when we think we’re going to see them. We grew up
bomb! Holy shit!”
Portrait by Andrea Blanch. Following spread: Robert Longo. Studio View, 2014.
31
I remember showing the atomic bomb test images to my
itself quite profound, because it’s a mourning material.
kids. I asked my son who was 8 years old at the time, “So,
It’s burnt. It’s dust. They’re incredibly fragile. I mean, I
what do you think this is?” And he answered, “I think it’s
make the most fragile art out there. When I saw Herzog’s
a hurricane.” He thought they were nature.
film Cave of Forgotten Dreams, I thought about how those
All of a sudden, I had this idea of man trying to be nature;
charcoal cave drawings are thirty-thousand years old!
an arrow pointed to go in that direction. I dropped my
We are all fighting against death. We are trying to deny
work on the waves, and the bombs happened. The Russian
death, to look it in the face and say I’m not scared. Say,
test bomb was a really great image. It was such a dirty, nas-
“Fuck you, I’m gonna live forever.”
ty-looking bomb. It looked like they blew it up in a fucking coffee can. With my work, I ended up beautifying certain
STEVE: The reason why it’s doubly interesting, in terms
images. The bombs led me to roses. Waves, bombs, and
of your work is 1) in your use of black and white, and 2)
roses have a similarity in those early series because they all
in regards to a quote by Roland Barthes: “Photography
exist at a moment of being. It’s almost like they’re orgasmic.
may correspond to the intrusion, in our modern soci-
I mean, they’re all at the moments of becoming.
ety, of an asymbolic death, outside of religion, outside
I started to understand that with the waves, the shape
of ritual, a kind of abrupt dive into literal death. Life/
of a wave is not necessarily dictated by how strong the
Death: the paradigm is reduced to a simple click, the one
wind is. It’s dictated by what’s deep underneath it. It’s
separating the initial pose from the final print. With the
like psychoanalysis. Ironically, before the wave draw-
photograph, we enter into flat death.”
ings, I was working on the Freud Cycle drawings. Julian Barnes wrote an essay about the idea of the artist
ROBERT: That flat death is really great.
turning catastrophe into art in Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, which is really interesting.
STEVE: It’s you. Why do you relate to it so much?
In the summer of 2004, I was invited to the Aspen Institute for Physics for the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s
ROBERT: My son once asked me why I make work in black
Theory of Relativity. They wanted to show a group of
and white. I remembered looking at LIFE magazines: The
seven bombs with the drawing I did of Einstein’s desk.
color exposées would be of Marilyn Monroe, the circus,
The institute showed these drawings in an octagonal
Broadway shows. Then when you would come to the pho-
room, a room in which they then hosted a conference
tojournalism of the Vietnam War and the horrors of Calcut-
about nuclear proliferation, with military people, scien-
ta they were always in black and white. Maybe in my mind
tists, and politicians. I thought that was very ironic.
I’ve come to the point of thinking that the truth is black and white, but I also think it’s highly abstract in that sense.
STEVE: In regards to the bomb images, you understand where they’re coming from, and the research that went
STEVE: These drawings flat line photography. Photogra-
into defining them. I do want to talk about photogra-
phy in itself is a flat line of the image which it captured,
phy, because that’s one of the issues here. I want to talk
which was alive.
a little bit about the content. Death is one of the major themes in your work. There is beauty, and there is death.
ROBERT: I think my “Men in the Cities” drawings played
There is power, and there is spectacle. All of these things
off of the art of shooting a photo. I remember when I got
are operating, on a complex level simultaneously. Some
a motor drive for a camera. I would shoot 30-40 photo-
of the images are coming from LIFE magazine, so it’s
graphs to get one image to make a drawing. It was like I
kind of like pop culture.
was shooting these people, literally. I work from photographs that are taken from a split second. I construct these
ROBERT: In considering all of those subjects such as beau-
images. I draw them; I build them. It takes an incredibly
ty, death, spectacle, and power, there is only one subject
long time to make a picture that is based on a split second.
that encompasses all of them: The Epic. I grew up with The
The anti-Robert Smithson. Entropy in reverse.
Ten Commandments, with Spartacus, and The Longest Day,
There’s traditional representation and modern abstrac-
all of these epic movies. I think this is another force that
tion. I exist somewhere in the middle. Maybe, I translate
drives me: trying to make epic work. I’m looking for the
photographs. I remember how my father would remem-
kind of rush that I had when I saw those movies.
ber things through photographs. Photographs function
Fear of death is why most of us make art, anyway. Hanne
as our collective memory. They fuse into this sense of our
Darboven’s work, with all that counting, possesses a sub-
collective unconscious. They are surrogates of ancient
text of, “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive…”
archetypes. Our memories exist as photographs, with po-
The fact that I make these drawings out of charcoal is in
tentiality as opposed to actuality.
Robert Longo. Untitled (Jackson’s Nebula), 2006
34
35
36
Robert Longo. After Pollock (Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1951), 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.
37
38
You have to realize the depth in which you can go; if you fuck the paper up, you can never get it back.
STEVE: I’m looking at your tools. You have a brush, the
ocean. In a weird way, my drawings based on Abstract Ex-
eraser to dig. It’s like an archeological excavation.
pressionist paintings from my 2014 exhibition Gang of Cosmos, were definitely labors of love. Regarding authorship,
ROBERT: I graduated with a sculpture degree. In my
I thought maybe I was revisiting the Abstract Expression-
mind I am a sculptor, not a painter. These drawings are
ist works to redeliver the authorship back to the artists
truly sculptural. The process of these drawings is the op-
who made those paintings.
posite of traditional painting. Traditional painting works
If you are successful enough to create an archetypal image
from dark to light. I work from a white surface. The white
in culture, you eventually lose authorship. So ‘Jackson Pol-
in the drawings is always the raw, virgin paper. I never
lock’ could be the style of painting that somebody does their
add white to the drawings. The drawings get built up
bathroom in. The authorship is lost in that work. By doing
with so many layers of charcoal and dust and powder
these drawings I was reinstating the artist’s authorship.
and stick. The way the drawing comes to life is by erasing,
The time it takes to make a brush stroke versus the time it
carving the image out of it.
takes to paint a brush stroke is radically different. Black and
You have to realize the depth in which you can go; if you
White photography is very arbitrary. So I worked from color
fuck the paper up, you can never get it back. They’re like
photographs, and deliberately tried to do a translation into
mineshaft disasters where you can never get back to white.
black and white with as much sincerity as possible.
We make different kinds of erasers. When we made those
In the Joan Mitchell painting I realized there was black
abstract expressionist paintings we made erasers to imi-
and red next to each other, and in the black and white
tate the grain of the canvas for the Barnett Newman piece.
photograph they looked exactly the same. So how do I
I’m dealing with a minor, forgotten medium that I found
translate that to give it some soul? Each painting required
in the crack of high art. I basically had to re-invent draw-
a different kind of strategy.
ing. We have invented techniques with the powder, and
For instance, what was really interesting, with the Pollock,
we’ve learned, what I call, different colors of charcoal.
is we toned the whole paper grey, and then we projected
Painting to me, I realize, is a form of architecture. You
the painting onto it, and then we drew the black first.
really have to build a painting. Great masters, how they
Once you draw the black first you realize there is clearly
deal with paintings, how they seam together wet and dry
a plan involved with Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number
blows my mind. My drawings take a long time, but great
30). It was basically divided into three sections. The next
paintings take fucking forever.
thing we did was the green and the gold, with different values of powder. The last thing we did was the white,
STEVE: Your work for me is really about a conceptual
with erasing. It was this really weird deconstruction of
practice. Even though there is imagery, the approach is
the painting to make it come alive. What was also amaz-
conceptual. Compared to the Abstract Expressionist
ing was with this idea of fractals: you could tell how tall
painting you worked from, your drawing is not a “repro-
Pollock was and how much he weighed by his gestures.
duction.” It’s of equal value, in terms of the experience for
It was really quite amazing taking these things apart. In
the viewer. Was this a part of your intellectual thought
the studio, each drawing looked like a forensic site. We
process or sensibility?
got permission from all of the artists’ estates. We got into the museums to see all the paintings. We took about 100
ROBERT: I think, for me, the ‘Picture’ sensibility was there
photographs for every painting. So every drawing was
at the beginning, but it’s definitely not there anymore. For
surrounded by hundreds of photographs that we were
me, Abstract Expressionism is a force in my life like the
working from to reconstruct this drawing.
Robert Longo. Opposite: Untitled (Russian Bomb / Semipalatinsk), 2003. Following spread: Untitled (Crown of Thorns), 2012.
39
STEVE: So obviously there is subjectivity in the transla-
husband back to the front. Her husband dies, and David
tion, but the subjectivity is like a technical virtuosity.
takes Bathsheba as a concubine. In the finished painting
How are you making these decisions? All intuitively?
she has such incredible, tender, poignant resignation in her face. But in the underpainting, the look that she has
ROBERT: Yeah. Very much so. Ironically, now that you
is more like, ‘Hmmm, this could be kind of interesting. I
bring that up, if art is subjectivity then science is objec-
get to do the chief’. When I saw that x-ray I was like holy
tivity. The choices I made were somewhat on the fly, but
shit, this is a completely different story. The interesting
were highly educated ones. They were planned.
thing is that there are stories behind making this work,
My work also has the scale of Abstract Expressionism.
then there are the stories that people perceive from it. I
I’m definitely a child of the Abstract Expressionists. That
find that really interesting.
scale. My generation of artists, the ‘Pictures Generation’
The Raft of the Medusa is another perfect example; the aris-
for lack of a better name, I think we wanted to compete
tocrats cut the rope on the raft and let them float, and
with the mediums that shaped us. That’s why I wanted
these fifteen survivors, out of the 150 on the raft, go back
to make a movie. The one big difference between cinema
to Paris and tell everyone that these loyalists fucking just
and an artwork is, how many times have I looked at The
let them drift. There was almost a revolution because of
Raft of the Medusa in the Louvre versus how many times
this. Many viewers don’t know this story of The Raft of
have I watched The Godfather? Art has this incredible de-
the Medusa, but they imagine their own story. It’s really
mocracy that exists within it that is not dependent on the
interesting in that sense.
narrative structure of film. When they first invented film they thought it was useless. Then writers thought, ‘This is
STEVE: In those atomic bomb drawings, you included
going to put us out of business, so we better usurp it, and
Einstein’s office. A lot of artists have had a fascination
put it into a narrative structure with a beginning, middle,
with the site of where science takes place. It’s either the
and an end.’
lab, or the chalkboard. What were you thinking by in-
With an artwork, the viewer makes his own story. You can
cluding that with the bomb drawings?
look at an artwork narratively, however you want to look at it. That’s why I don’t like time-based art. I find it really bor-
ROBERT: Right. There was Einstein’s office. There was a
ing. I hate going to movies where I miss the beginning of a
rocket taking off, which I included as an homage to Jack
movie. I don’t want to walk into a gallery wondering, ‘When
Goldstein, because Jack had just died. There was also a
does this start?’ I like the democracy that exists within art.
shot of the corduroy effect of the waves, which reminded me of a movie I saw as a kid, On the Beach. I had just
STEVE: I think you have a rather scientific mind because
finished doing the Freud drawings, about Freud’s office.
of the research that goes into your work. What I perceive
I realized that Freud and Einstein are these incredible
when I look at a lot of your work, is that it’s through the
white, old men bookends of western civilization. I found
lens of science. Then when I look at these x-ray drawings
this photo of Einstein’s that was taken the day he died. I
I’m insanely jealous because it’s such a great idea. We’re
found out that his office at Princeton was the same office,
talking about rendering something visible that’s invis-
same space, in the kind of cupola or the dormer of the
ible. What’s that experience for you as an artist?
building, the exact same office as Oppenheimer’s office. So I took the chair from Oppenheimer’s office and put
ROBERT: The first drawings I made that were based on
that chair into Einstein’s office.
x-rays, were based on x-rays of Rembrandt’s paintings of
Then I tried to understand what was written on the
Jesus. I think God is about believing in the invisible, and
blackboard. I learned that Einstein’s whole life, after
x-rays are about seeing the invisible. When I began this
the theory of relativity, was this attempt to unify string
series, I re-read texts by writers such as Walter Benjamin,
theory and the theory of relativity. The blackboard was
who describes the loss of the aura. I thought that this series
literally divided in half. There were these two formulas.
of works based on x-rays was a way of reclaiming the aura.
The problem with the original photo of Einstein’s office
I also love this idea of seeing things that you can’t see.
was the information on the blackboard was unclear, so I
Bathsheba at her bath is a really good example. She’s
took the homework of my son, who was doing trigonom-
been asked by King David to come over to his house
etry, and wrote it on a blackboard. So part of it, on the
while her husband is away fighting for King David,
blackboard in Einstein’s office is my kid’s math home-
because he wants to fuck her. She gets pregnant. King
work. What was really funny was when we showed the
David calls her husband back, but he doesn’t want to
drawings in Aspen, there were guys there that actually
sleep with her because he feels bad for his troops, so he
knew Einstein and were looking at the blackboard going,
sleeps out on the street. King David freaks out, sends her
‘What was he fucking thinking?’
Robert Longo. Top: Einstein’s Desk (Princeton), 2004. Bottom: Untitled (Freud’s Desk and Chair, Study Room 1938), 2000.
42
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Robert Longo. In progress image of Untitled (Shipwreck, Redux), 2016.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
ELLEN JANTZEN
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ELLEN JANTZEN
Ellen Jantzen, Extrusion, 2016
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
ELLEN JANTZEN
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ELLEN JANTZEN
Ellen Jantzen, Fusion of Nature, 2016
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
ELLEN JANTZEN
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ELLEN JANTZEN
Ellen Jantzen, Controlled Access, 2016
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
TA L DA N I N O & V I K M U N I Z d i sh
ANDREA BLANCH: As a cancer researcher and synthetic
synthetic biology. It is a really exciting field that is all
biologist, what inspired you to turn these cells into art?
about programming life. I think of it as trying to treat life and living organisms almost like computers. Instead of
TAL DANINO: I did a lot of outreach while doing re-
writing computer code, we write DNA code. We write
search: demos for kids, museums, science fairs. I would
DNA code and put them into a bacteria, cell, yeast, or
always bring bacteria to show, and would talk about can-
some other organism. It then could be programmed to do
cer – how we treat cancer. From there someone actually
something that it doesn’t normally do.
introduced me to Vik Muniz and that’s when I started thinking a lot more about the visuals. I started focusing
ANDREA: Like what?
on the visuals to get more people’s attention – to engage kids, adults, and the general population – and to talk
TAL: The big areas in this field are taking medicines and
about the science I was doing myself. I thought it was
biofuels as therapies or acting as biosensors – it can sense
really helpful because when you get into the words and
things in the environment like toxins or things in your body.
the details of explaining the science, people get lost very
They’re probably the biggest areas of research right now.
quickly. Not because they’re not capable; it’s just not an everyday language that we use. It’s a little bit isolating to
ANDREA: Is this part of the cancer research?
learn about sciences in that way, but there’s something about the arts that makes our research and science more
TAL: So the third part, in regards to cancer, is the applica-
palatable, a lot easier to understand.
tion. Almost everybody knows someone who has cancer.
ANDREA: That has been the big question when doing
ANDREA: Unfortunately.
this issue and focusing on people who deal with science. I keep saying to make it more accessible. You want people
TAL: Yes, unfortunately it is the disease of our time be-
to be engaged and it is a different language. So, unless
cause there is no universal cure. There are ways to treat
you either dumb down the language or show incredible
certain cancers. Everybody cares about certain cancers
visuals, people are not going to pay attention.
too. So in terms of my own research, those three areas together, really make a strong, attractive push for people
TAL: Yes. I mean, it’s tricky because these areas that I’m
to understand them. The science is still pretty challeng-
studying are things that people really care about. For
ing. That’s why making these artworks out of cancer cells
instance, studying bacteria has become a really popular
and bacteria, with engineered patterns in a way, lends to
trend. What we’ve learned is that all of the bacteria in-
the idea that we are engineering the bacteria themselves.
side of our bodies are actually important for our health.
It is a really powerful message for my research and a lot
For instance, when you’re too sterile, the way that you’re
of other people’s research as well.
delivered as a baby, taking too many antibiotics; all these things that affect the kinds of bacteria in our body. It
ANDREA: Was there an initial moment of inspiration
leads to allergies, stress, and all kinds of disorders be-
for Colonies?
cause we’ve been too sterile as a society for a long time. So, that’s one area of my research. The second area is
Portrait courtesy of Tal Danino.
53
TAL: When I met Vik, I showed him these bacteria vid-
eos that I have online. He was very excited about that.
ly in my lab where we do both science and art – I really
What we first did was make very simple drawings on
try to get the students to break free of that, to embrace the
petri dishes. I did a sample of Vik’s own bacteria. I think
unknown and to just go with it as we’re moving along.
from the inception there was such a good sense of scale. The conclusion we came to after that initial petri dish,
ANDREA: They’re just different ways of looking at the
was that we need to see both the bacteria as a whole –
same thing?
the individual bacteria – and the image as a whole. What that meant for me was that we needed to make very, very
TAL: But I would say that it is very complementary, be-
small images; we had to develop this technique to basi-
cause the artistic skill set is very useful as a scientist: both
cally micro-pattern cells. That patterning itself is about
as the idea of exploration as well as communication. All of
the size of a dime. Then, the artworks are printed seven
our data is so visual. As scientists, we look at the micro-
feet by seven feet. From ten feet away you can actually
scope very often, and try to extract information from there.
see it’s made of tiny little cells – which is really nice.
Art is really complementary to science and to scientists. And science is very complementary to art. Obviously, the
ANDREA: Why did you choose to title the series Colonies?
fundamental laws of nature are boundaries and parameters for your art – for what you want to physically do.
TAL: When we grow bacteria in petri dishes, each individual dot of bacteria is a colony. Every colony is actually ge-
ANDREA: Have you always had an interest in art? In the
netically identical. It’s almost the way that we use the word
video by Creators Project, you mentioned your interest
“colonies” in regular everyday language: it is a little cluster
in art as a graduate student in regards to the bacteria
of people or bacteria grouped together. So it was this idea
films you created at the time.
that the patterns are the clusters of bacteria. They’re arranged in a much more interesting way than how we think
TAL: I would say that was my first moment of interest
of a bacterial colony. It’s an engineered colony on its own.
in science-art. When I was a kid, my mom was an artist, and we always did art projects. My dad is an engineer by
ANDREA: Vik describes the relationship between the sci-
training. So there was a balance between them. I was al-
ences and art as one of matter and meaning. What is your
ways really interested in art and visualization, but it was a
take on this relationship?
very separate thing. I would take painting classes, and do completely different things. As a grad student you spend
TAL: Matter and meaning. It is interesting. For “Colonies”,
so much time in a lab that I chose to merge the two things
I think of it more as: “the medium is the message”. We are
together. It made it really interesting for me because it was
working with this matter, with this object that is a part of
a different way of seeing my own research and sharing it
the meaning.
with people. It also opens up new doors for me, because if I see some interesting bacteria that makes this pattern,
ANDREA: Is the relationship between the sciences and
and feel that it’s really beautiful aesthetically, I can learn
art intrinsic or complementary?
more about it as an entry point and bring it into my own research as a scientist. You don’t want to spend 24 hours
TAL: I think there are a lot of different aspects to it. In
at your job doing science, but if I spend a lot of time on sci-
some ways they’re very similar. You’re exploring. Even
ence and incorporate art, I’m actually adding more to my
though you have a general direction, you don’t know ex-
knowledge of science, even though it’s a different thing.
actly what you’re doing. As you’re exploring this space, you stumble on different things and chase after them. Art
ANDREA: How is bacteria beautiful? Is it because of the
is done in a very similar process, where it’s not always
patterns that they form?
predetermined. A difference is that typically, artists embrace that process a lot more. I feel that scientists are a
TAL: Yes. Did you see the Petri series?
lot more conformed to a process that is predetermined. When I think about combining science and art – especial-
ANDREA: Yes, with Bernardaud.
Vik Muniz. Opposite: Chiral Colony, Courtesy of Bernardaud; Following spread: Vik Muiz, Motherboard, Colonies, 2014.
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TAL: So, for instance, those patterns on the plates are
about MIT is that they have producers that help facilitate
naturally occurring growth patterns of bacteria on petri
the interactions between the artists and the scientists.
dishes. If you put bacteria under certain conditions they
I think that this is a crucial component to these collabo-
will form these really intricate snowflake or fractal-like
rations because the worlds are very different. If neither
patterns. So that by itself is beautiful.
world has experience in the other, it’s very hard to begin.
ANDREA: But the images of bacteria itself, the colors
ANDREA: Where do these producers come from?
were Vik’s choice? Your choice? Arbitrary? TAL: They work at MIT CAST – Center for Art, Science TAL: So those were Vik’s choices. When you grow bac-
and Technology. The director is Leila Kinney. The produc-
teria they’re usually a cream color, and not usually that
er was Meg Rotzel. She helped facilitate the interactions
pigmented – except for a few. We usually dye the bacteria
with Vik. He had a schedule and meetings with various
a color that is used for identification of bacteria in the lab.
people to see if it’s mutually interesting: for ideas, and
So one of the Petri plates is a purple-ish blue. That one is
in order to feel it out. The interactions beyond that were
actually just a dye sample from the lab.
trips that the center funded. I also did something with Anika Ye, another artist I worked with. We workshopped
ANDREA: Wow, that’s really beautiful!
together to teach people at MIT what we were doing.
TAL: Yes. I really like that one. And I think on that same
ANDREA: So Vik’s role in this collaboration was to pro-
one, there’s actually some writing of mine on the petri
vide visuals?
dish. That one’s almost a scientific object. TAL: Yes. Vik would send me images for Colonies. We had ANDREA: The color was stunning. I hadn’t noticed the
to develop the science for making these complex visuals.
writing before.
It took us quite some time. There was a technique previously available to make very simple patterns. You couldn’t
TAL: Sometimes we false color them for Colonies.
make a bullseye pattern. You could make a circle, but you couldn’t make a circle within a circle. That was the limit of
ANDREA: False colored. Meaning you add color?
the technology. It’s a process that is closer to silk screening than painting. We don’t use a brush. We use stamps and
TAL: Yes.
molds. We bind these cancer cells to specific areas where the stamp was. I took the pictures on the microscope –
ANDREA: That’s a nice expression. So, you and Vik came
large scale digital photos. I then sent them to Vik’s studio.
to work together because you met at MIT. Did you ap-
There, they would false color them and print them.
proach him? Or him you? What was the nature of the residency?
ANDREA: Did the patterns that you chose reflect the process and materials that you used?
TAL: MIT’s Center for Art, Science, and Technology is an amazing organization. As a part of that program, they
TAL: Definitely. There’s a lot of back-and-forth, especially
bring in visiting artists to MIT. Vik really had a goal of
on my end; in thinking about which kinds of cells look
wanting to make art with living things. Especially, small
best visually for which patterns. Some cells have harder
living things. It was by coincidence because I was work-
edges that look more like polygons. Others have smooth-
ing and doing demos at museums, and someone from the
er rounded edges. We had a couple of variations for each,
MIT office contacted me and told me that Vik and I should
and chose the one that looked best. We also had to do
meet, that he could help with the visuals in my museum
some thinking, more cerebral planning, as to which cells
demos. When we met, we talked about the visualization
we want for which image, to convey a certain meaning.
of bacteria. He was really excited about working together.
For instance, the one that I’d love to show you is a man-
So we put that collaboration forward. What’s really great
dala of a blue cancer cell. We chose the mandala because
Vik Muniz. Opposite: Diffuse Salmonella, Courtesy of Bernardaud; Following spread: Vik Muiz, Left: Flowers (Vaccinia Virus) Pattern, Colonies, 2014; Right: Liver (Hepatocytes) cell pattern 1, Colonies, 2014
59
it is a symbol of life, which juxtaposes with cancer.
own research where I’m making art, and telling people about it. I think that scientists should be doing more of
ANDREA: After you sent the images to Vik, did he ma-
this. It’s really good to help get the word out there.
nipulate any of those? Or was it just a question of color choice? It seems so much more complex than I thought.
ANDREA: How much control over the bacteria shapes did you have? Can you manipulate that at all? As you
TAL: There is actually no Photoshop involved. Vik likes
said, “we could manipulate it in Photoshop”, but could
that. My experience in making images was that they
you do anything like that yourself?
weren’t perfect enough. There are all these cells trailing around that shouldn’t be, which is what we look for in
TAL: We don’t manipulate the shape of the bacteria. We
science. But aesthetically, Vik likes cells scattered around.
manipulate their color in ways that we engineer. So we
If you look closely, there are also vertical lines within the
make and express different kinds of fluorescent proteins
images that were where we stitched separate microscopic
that are shown in some of the Colonies images.
images together with a 20 x 20 stitch. He explains it as leaving a trail of bread crumbs for the viewer. You don’t want it
ANDREA: How do you feel art and science will evolve
to look so perfect. You want to give people a sense of how
and intersect in the future?
was this made? You want to make them look twice at the situation. That’s what I’ve learned from working with Vik.
TAL: There’s this evolving discipline of bio-art. Artists use the materials that are available to them, and often the
ANDREA: What went into choosing the patterns for each
materials of their day. Artists started using technology
image? For example, the image of cars in a traffic jam.
thirty to forty years ago, especially in regards to computers. Now that’s happening with biology. Biology is
TAL: My impression of that specific piece was that the
getting a lot simpler to use. People are learning how to
cells and the pattern were both negative ideas. In the Col-
manipulate biology. Artists are now using biology as a
onies series, there is a figurative image and a patterned
medium: bacteria, fungi, moss. I think bio-art is definitely
image. There’s traffic and there’s a mandala. There’s
going to grow in the same way new media art and tech-
a couple of other pairs like that. So for this pair, it was
nological art developed in the past few decades.
negative-negative and then negative-positive. ANDREA: At this time, would you add artist to your ANDREA: How do you feel Petri and Colonies redefines
various titles?
the idea of cancer, virus, and bacteria? TAL: Yes. I now consider myself an artist. It happened after TAL: One thing we just talked about was that one can
the Colonies series. I did an art residency in the fall at Eye-
see bacteria and cancer in a different light. The idea that
beam in New York, and I’m still an art resident there. I just
bacteria cells are always bad is now changing. Especially
had an exhibition on Wednesday with a couple of new pieces
now, to think that bacteria is treating cancer, these images
I did at Henrietta Lacks. It was my first-time solo exhibition.
are now helping to bring people into an understanding of the different kinds of relationships.
ANDREA: Scientifically speaking, where would you like your research to take you? What’s your goal?
ANDREA: You did a TED Talk on programming bacteria to detect cancer in the body. Does this area of yours re-
TAL: I have two goals. The very broad goal is that I want
late in any way to Colonies?
to develop new therapies and diagnostics for cancer. This is a major goal. In the process, and in order to do
TAL: The Colonies series helps convey the research that
it, we need to learn how to engineer bacteria, and design
we do in a more engaging way. I can’t say that Colonies
principles for this. So this is a small detail from a broad
has helped develop the science for anything regarding
perspective, but very important. It’s almost like learning
cancer. It’s more of a personal exploration for me. It’s my
how to code before writing an app.
Vik Muniz. Tip-Splitting Morphotype, Courtesy of Bernardaud
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
JAN STALLER
Jan Staller, Water Isolation Pilot Plant.
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JAN STALLER
Jan Staller, Water Isolation Pilot Plant.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
JAN STALLER
Jan Staller, Kirtland Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.
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JAN STALLER
Jan Staller, White Sand Missile Range.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Stefan Jennings Batista, Phoebe, 2014
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Stefan Jennings Batista, Top: Aphrodite; Bottom: Maia, 2014
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Mico Pavlovic, Top: Balancing at breaking Point; Bottom: Balance at Breaking Point 4.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Mico Pavlovic, Top: Balancing at Breaking Point 2; Bottom: In Search of Balance I.
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ST E V E M I L L E R th e be a uty o f co mp l ex i ty
ANDREA BLANCH: How long have you been using sci-
I thought that would be a really great game to play in
ence in your paintings?
terms of my own career, and how my work is valued and how art is valued in particular, and in this case, it was
STEVE MILLER: Far too long. I would say, probably, in
sort of a competition, between myself as an artist and the
the early 80s, I started working with science and technol-
price of gold in relationship to the financial market.
ogy. I think I started out working with computers, probably around 1983, something like that. I came to it because
ANDREA: Tell me how you got involved with the pic-
I realized that computers had an implicit visual language,
tures to begin with and what the process was, in terms of
which is coded in our particular moment in time. I knew
going there and taking images.
that if there was going to be a new language system, it was going to be through technology.
STEVE: The first step towards technology was looking at the technology used to analyze financial markets in rela-
ANDREA: Well, let’s talk about the conversation we had
tionship to art. I kept exploring areas of technology, and
the other night regarding who came first.
I started to think about the typical art genres: portraiture, still life, landscape, and history painting. Photography
STEVE: The chicken or the egg?
was Shanghai’d from science by us artists and amateurs, and the next I thought it would be interesting to use these
ANDREA: Yeah.
technologies of x-ray, MRI, blood tests, CAT scans: all the ways we look at ourselves and get identified forensically.
STEVE: My first show in New York City was in 1980 at
There’s a new kind of identity created through these new
Artist Space. In that show, I was a licensed commodities
tools. Then that started me
trader, and I had my own firm. I saw what was happen-
using electron microscopes. I had my blood analyzed
ing in the art world and could see the discussion going
under an electron microscope in the south of France. We
less towards content, and more towards commodity.
found pollen spores in my blood, so that became a meta-
I thought it was a very interesting moment in time to
phor that got me thinking of something called Vanitas,
comment about that. So I set up a commodities trading
which are sort of still-lifes that show your mortality. The
screen; it was from a company called Radio Data Sys-
message was pretty much, you better be good, because
tems. This stuff is so primitive, before Bloomberg ter-
Santa Claus is coming to town.
minals–and I set it up so I could trade commodities in the installation. So, I did a camouflage environment with
ANDREA: What did it look like, the Vanitas?
charts and graphs. I had a painting with a bar of gold in it, and a graph with the price of gold. It was called Mur-
STEVE: It’s the guy looking at his skull; there’s an hour-
phy’s Golden Rule, and “Murphy’s Golden Rule” is that
glass on the table, there are wilted flowers, there are
those who hold the gold make the rules.
musical instruments. All of these things are about the
I thought what would be interesting in terms of the con-
passage of time and mortality, but I wanted to use new
text of the show was to see, overtime, what becomes
technology to reinvent it – so I used electron microscopes
more valuable. Is it going to be more valuable as a work
to do the self-portrait part.
of art, or is it going to be more valuable for the gold? So,
The electron microscope created this idea of abstraction,
Portrait by Ashley Comer.
73
The data measurement of aesthetics right now is way larger than anybody could possibly imagine. The market demands it.
because when I first showed those images, they weren’t
for example), that collision can be measured as energy –
out there in public so much, so they had this form of
we’re getting into too much science – but there’s an ener-
abstraction and wonder. That led me to Brookhaven Na-
getic equivalent to mass: E=MC2, right? E, energy, equals
tional Labs, where I was invited by Kathy Brew with a
mass, and there’s a relationship. Mass, if you could re-
bunch of artists to see if there’s something interesting at
lease that mass, times the speed of light squared, that’s
Brookhaven that we could work on. After that trip, I was
how much energy is in a piece of matter. That’s why you
looking at the two major toys there. One was the Relativ-
can have an atomic bomb. That’s why you can get those
istic Heavy Ion Collider. So that was the segue to CERN.
Robert Longo images we were
At the time, they were smashing protons to verify the ex-
talking about. We’re in this era of high science, technol-
istence of the Quark-Gluon plasma, which is the state of
ogy, and data analytics. So, as an artist, I’m completely
matter in the Big Bang. I did a body of work entitled, Neo-
compelled to follow that trail.
lithic Quark, got some press, did a catalogue, and that led me to Rockefeller, with Roderick MacKinnon, who also
ANDREA: You were one of the first ones to start blazing
won the noble prize for chemistry in the middle of our
the trail.
working together. So the combination of working with Rod and working with Steven Adler at Brookhaven got
STEVE: I’ve been doing it for a while. What’s amazing is,
me on track to CERN.
when I went to Brookhaven, I was the only person who
Through another physicist at Rockefeller, Sebastian
took up the challenge of working there. A bunch of artists
White, I got invited to CERN to give a lecture to the the-
were invited there and I met some really cool people; Ste-
ory group. I spent a week receiving the VIP tour of all
ven Adler and Nora Volkow. Now Nora’s the head of one of
the experiments. I realized that micro-reality and macro-
the divisions of NIH. They were just such amazing people,
reality had one thing in common: data analytics. Even
and they were giving me access to these incredible tools. I
though I went in thinking of particles of waves, I came
got to look at a particle accelerator; I got to walk through it,
out understanding it was about parsing data in order to
talk to everybody, try to understand what they’re doing. I
find the Higgs Boson.
got to ask, how does it relate to my life, and why is everybody so interested in this area? It was such an incredible
ANDREA: What’s a Higgs Boson?
opportunity with a journey that began with my first solo show at White Columns. Understanding the data of com-
STEVE: A Higgs Boson is one of the elementary particles
modities trading really mirrored the emerging cultural fact.
of the universe that needed verification. It’s the particle
Now, art prices are on the net. So, the data measurement
that gives all other particles mass. Not to get too into it,
of aesthetics right now is way larger than anybody could
but there’s a Higgs field that permeates the universe.
possible imagine. The market demands it.
Other particles move through that field and their mass is
In 1975, when I first started out, it was Art Forum, a
in relation to their interaction with this field.
magazine of art and ideas. There were all of these issues
In order to figure out whether this Higgs field exists or
that everyone was worried about. There were people
not, they had to go looking for it; they had to observe
like Walter DeMaria, going out in the desert, and really
it by measuring it. When particles collide (two quarks,
looking at the non-commodification of the object; really
Steve Miller. Opposite: Elastic And Diffractive,; Following spread: Released In the Future, 2014
74
wanting to react to that, and having a non-objective, non-
stuff, is that the chalkboard actually means something.
commercial experience. I think of a lot of artists, like Rob-
Not that an abstract gesture does not have content or
ert Smithson with Spiral Jetty, or in New Jersey where he
meaning, because it does. It has meaning about the hu-
dumps asphalt down the side of the hill. I think a lot of
man endeavor: the action and activity is important, but
artists were thinking about that. So I was just taking off
this is a different kind of activity. They’re looking for a
on this notion of anti-commodification. The commodities
unified theory of the universe, and that’s wild. They’re
trading thing. It’s materialism. This is gold. This is art.
looking for it in the more succinct forms. I mean one
Which is worth more? It’s a dialogue that’s been going on
version, E=MC2, doesn’t account for everything, but
for a long time. Financial analytics led me towards tech-
it’s the shortest mathematical formula that accounts for
nology, which led me towards medical technology, and
the most amount of information. So when you’re going
that led me to particle physics.
around CERN, you’re looking at all these chalkboards, and you’re talking to these guys, and you gain an idea
ANDREA: Is there a way to know how that relates to
of what they’re looking for, how they’re thinking. That
aesthetics? Or how it informs aesthetics?
these equations, they’re sketchpads, they’re notations, really formulas for understanding the Cosmos. That’s very
STEVE: It informs aesthetics now, and I’m not even say-
compelling content. Even if you don’t understand this as
ing that’s a good thing. I’m just saying it’s a reality. Deal
a viewer, you know that it has a deeper meaning.
with it. The world is changing; we have all this technol-
What I did was photograph the chalkboards, and then I
ogy. My favorite quote was a Richard Prince quote from
highly contrasted them, so they only have the line. Then
an interview where he says: “if you’re not on the gram,’”
I would silkscreen the chalkboard on top of the images
meaning Instagram, “you’re either in deep shit, quick-
of the experiments. It seems to me it gave another layer
sand, or riding around in a covered wagon.”
of meaning, because the problem with imaging science is putting together beauty and complexity. Nobody’s go-
ANDREA: Absolutely.
ing to understand the science, even the physicists don’t understand half of it. I mean one of Richard Feynman’s
STEVE: That’s basically where we’re at. It’s really hard to
favorite quotes is, “Nobody understands quantum me-
keep up with technology. With a team, I am creating an-
chanics,” because it’s based on the uncertainty principle
other kind of data analytics for the galleries – I just had to
and probability; it’s not based on logic.
go there. It’s not what I envisioned, it’s just that the information is leading me to explore different aspects of art.
ANDREA: I mean everywhere, people are suddenly putting art and science together. I would think it’s because
ANDREA: Yet, with your pictures of CERN, you still use
of technology, the data analytics, how we live now. The
your silkscreen technique. You brought another element,
everyday person – like myself – is becoming more aware,
a more traditional element, into it.
so there’s more interest in this.
STEVE: Well, there’s nothing more beautiful than graffiti
STEVE: Right. The front page of The New York Times, on
on a chalkboard. What’s so interesting about the CERN
July 4th 2012, featured the Higgs Boson. Then you see a
78
We’re talking about how science invents photography, and how photography changes the whole freaking world.
recent front page of the Times: it is gravitational waves.
more? How are people going to relate to this: not being
Something monumental and important is taking place.
able to see a visual?
Previous to last week, we were looking through the universe only through light, through telescopes. With light
STEVE: The pulse of the laser, in the detector, made a
waves, Einstein was trying to figure out that it takes eight
sound when the force of the gravitational wave pushed
minutes for the light of the sun to reach the earth, so how
the laser out of phase.
long does it take for gravity to travel the same distance? Is gravity something transmitted? I mean, is it just there?
ANDREA: For your generation, you’re unusual. I could
And he figures, ok, there are light waves. The speed limit
see the younger generation dealing with these things.
of the universe is the speed of light. Einstein proposed that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. So, there’s
STEVE: Maybe so, but for the next generation, what’s the
also gravity between the Earth and the Sun. Does it take
implication of space-time? What’s the implication of dark
eight minutes for the gravity to get from the Sun to the
energy? There’s data now that’s being generated by the non-
Earth? So if the Sun blew up, will the Earth stay in orbit
visible universe. How interesting it is to make art out of the
for eight minutes before it wanders off into the universe?
nonvisible universe. If I don’t do it, somebody else will. I think it’s really important to communicate visually,
ANDREA: So, why is gravity equivalent to the speed of light?
and the reason I like the layering of the imagery, is to create that complexity and that layering; because it’s a
STEVE: It’s a scientific proposition. If gravity is a wave – if
very layered and complex experience. So, I think the vi-
forces move through waves – then how fast does gravity
sual component needs to reflect that intuitively. How are
move? Einstein thinks that gravity moves at the speed of
people going to represent the rest of the 95% rest of the
light. Now, two sensors have detected that gravitational
Cosmos? I think this notion that science and technology
waves exist. I can explain the experiment, but we’ve gotten
opens new worlds, just like in the interview with Mar-
way off topic here. What they’ve done is they’ve measured
vin Heiferman. We’re talking about how science invents
what they think is an event that happened a billion years
photography, and how photography changes the whole
ago, which is when two black holes collide, and they created
freaking world. It’s a completely different world because
a huge gravitational ripple through the fabric of space-time.
of technology. Now, technology and the Internet have
That ripple is in the form of waves that travel at the speed
created a new set of relationships. It’s changed the social
of light, and they reached Earth in September. So the whole
fabric of promotion: advertising, dating. Part of art world
reason I’m talking about this, is now we have a whole other
judgment, part of it, is based on people’s statistics; their
way of looking at the universe, which is through nonvisible
measure of financial value: of likes, of popularity. Data
means, which is gravity. No one can see it, but now we’re
and technology are invading the traditional and classic
starting to measure it, which opens up a whole new door.
set of criteria. There is a shift and now there’s another
We have the possibility to measure dark matter and dark
thing going on: a major, huge development in science.
energy which composes 95% of the universe.
With the search for the Higgs, we’re involved with 5% of the visual universe, and now we have 95% of the in-
ANDREA: How do you think that will inform people
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visible universe that’s coming into view. That’s amazing.
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Steve Miller. Office, from CERN, Unique custom bound book and silkscreen. 2014
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Steve Miller. Chalk Boards, from CERN, Unique custom bound book and silkscreen. 2014
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Steve Miller. CERN, from CERN, Unique custom bound book and silkscreen. 2014
85
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
DAVID GOLDES
David Goldes. Charged Threads Tied at Both Ends, 2011.
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DAVID GOLDES
David Goldes, Charged Threads Tied to a Single Thread, 2011.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
DAVID GOLDES
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DAVID GOLDES
David Goldes, Electricity On My Table, 2010.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
DAVID GOLDES
David Goldes, Six Pencils, 2012
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DAVID GOLDES
David Goldes, Spiral Drawing, Pencil and Electricity, 2012
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
A DA M F U S S ou tl i e r
ANDREA BLANCH: During your career, you’ve been
wonder and discovery. Man Ray and Moholy-Nagy are
labeled a lot of different things — one of them being a
much more sophisticated insiders, self-conscious picture-
“spirit photographer.”
makers. I’m always trying to make pictures I’m not in.
ADAM FUSS: Well, spirit photography is photographing
ANDREA: When I met you, I told you that I loved the
manifestations — ghostly-type pictures. I’ve done a lot
series where you have snakes on a mattress, and some are
of work around a series called “My Ghost,” but I never
in focus and some are not. What is the name of the series?
thought of that as being spirit photography. ADAM: “Home and the World.” ANDREA: People also compare your work to sun-print photograms, rather than camera-less darkroom techniques.
ANDREA: Have you ever heard of the term “Architecture of Entrance?”
ADAM: I regard any light that illuminates the light-sensitive paper. The kind of light is not important. It’s about
ADAM: This is the “Architecture of Entrance” right here.
the duration and intensity of those different kinds of light
(pointing to picture of a vagina) The beginning of this sto-
and the image that’s desired.
ry is that I made pictures with snakes swimming. What I learned from making this image and observing the snakes
ANDREA: You’ve said that your work has more in com-
is that they are a very kind of positive force of life, both sym-
mon with Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray than William
bolically and energetically — all the snake wants to do is be
Henry Fox Talbot.
under its own cognizance, it wants to be free. You get the sense of that cliché, how important freedom is. Years go by
ADAM: No, it’s the opposite. Just because I use a camera-
after making that image, and I’m thinking about making a
less technique doesn’t mean I have a lot in common with
picture with snakes that relates to a game I played as a child
Man Ray or Moholy-Nagy. It’s because, particularly with
called “Snakes and Ladders.” This is a Snakes and Ladders
Man Ray, the language of what he’s making photograms
board, an old version, because it came to England from In-
of is very different from the material I’m choosing and my
dia. I played on an English 1960s version. You play with a
subject matter — I’m generally choosing natural forms
die, and you move from here, and on a square that’s a lad-
while he’s choosing manmade forms.
der, you go up. If you land on a square that’s a snake, you go down. Each square has an attribution, like this one where
ANDREA: What do you have more in common with in
that’s a ladder—let’s just pretend that this says “charity,”
regards to Henry Fox Talbot and Anna Atkins?
and that this one with the snake says “greed.” The snake has a negative connotation. Exploring this board game led
ADAM: Talbot and Atkins are using natural forms. I think
me into the symbolism of the snake and my own desire to
it’s also in the spirit of experimentation, particularly with
understand why my experience with the snake was highly
Talbot. He is understanding how to make images on
positive. There is this highly negative, cultural form put on
the light-sensitive paper that he’s created, and Atkins is
the snake: stories you’ve heard from your parents, and who
formally recording plant material. I feel close to both of
doesn’t know the story of Adam and Eve? The bad snake!
their works and that period because it has that sense of
The Medusa? The bad snake! The paradox is that you’re
Portrait by Andrea Blanch. All the following images courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York.
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Adam Fuss. Home and the World, 2011.
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surrounded by good snakes. Every ambulance in New York
The best art would be made in a trance, yet the artmak-
has a good snake on it. It’s a healing snake. Energy. In this
ing process takes part. That’s why Pollock is so great — he
game I played as a child, the first person to reach 100 won.
lets go before the picture is made. There’s nature between
But in the Indian version, you actually leave the game, and
the end of his stick and the canvas. There’s an honesty and
you’re in this Godhead at the top of the game. So it’s about
universality in it that is very hard to get to with yourself,
a path towards escaping rebirth; they wanted to achieve en-
when the self is making the work. I was looking at the
lightenment. The snake represents a lot of things, but one of
Medusa story and thinking: what the fuck? I don’t even
them is that it carries the energy that manifests sexual attrac-
have an entrance to that. What happened was that I was
tion. It carries the energy of the future of the race. Then look
invited to a party, and the theme of the party was Brides
at the shape of your genes. The biggest decision you could
and Grooms, so I bought some wedding dresses for my
make in your life is who you are sharing your genes with,
girlfriend, and pretending to be a bride must have tipped
and your decision about who you’re exchanging that with
her over the edge. It was hell. We were the last of 50-70
is the most fundamental and dangerous. I think that’s why
couples to arrive. We got back, put the dresses away, and
the snake is dangerous to people. The snake in the game is
a few months later, I found myself at a breath workshop
basically about the process of civilizing that sexual desire
upstate my wife recommended me to go to. So, I’m in this
and trying to escape from it, trying to transcend sexuality,
room with a bunch of people, and these two women were
and, therefore, escape rebirth, escape your karma.
dressed in white. Suddenly the music’s on very loud, and the lights are really dim, and people are doing this breath
ANDREA: Would a lot of people like to do that?
thing — it was really intense. It was like my head blew off, and I was vomiting, and I was crying, and I was screaming,
ADAM: Apparently not. Monastic attendance is way down.
and it was this heavily cathartic thing. A couple of hours
If you think of the passage of the train from the London Un-
later, I had this thought of putting the snakes in the wed-
derground, from East London to West London, coming to
ding dress, so I came back to New York and made the pic-
stations and meeting other train lines — it’s a map of all
ture of the snakes in the wedding dress. I went back and
the sexual experiences of your life. The point where those
read Medusa, the story we know — the female head de-
trains cross symbolizes a moment of exchange, a possibil-
capitated and full of snakes. But there’s the story of how
ity to move in a new direction. So, the map of the London
Medusa becomes Medusa: after Medusa’s decapitated, two
Underground could be a gene map; it’s like an orgy of
drops of blood emerge from her decapitation, and when
genes crossing. It doesn’t have to be sexualized. It could
they hit the ground, they give birth to two beings. One is a
be names, it could be ideas. It could be a map of meeting
golden, shining man — that’s how I felt after this cathartic
people and exchanging an idea that produces a new idea,
experience. The other thing that comes out of Medusa is
a new invention, a new philosophy. The mattress in this se-
Pegasus, which, for me, is the most optimistic image in art,
ries is symbolic of our world — we’re born on mattresses,
as it speaks to absolute liberation and freedom of emotion.
we’re conceived on mattresses, and we’ll probably die on
The image of the dress for me was always the body without
mattresses. And then, I thought that I want to photograph
the life, it’s a body without a head.
people on mattresses, because the snake is symbolic of them. I discovered that my daguerreotype technique wasn’t
ANDREA: Much of your work feels like a dissection, both
as good as it could be, because I couldn’t retain the qual-
literally and emotionally. Why is it important for you
ity of pale-skinned models. Their skin was getting darker;
to combine the technical and the emotional? Technical,
it didn’t make sense. That’s why I decided to shoot African
meaning that it’s scientific. Your work is experimental,
Americans — it doesn’t matter if they go dark. I thought it
and there’s a spirituality to it.
made sense, because I had this cliché in my head that Eve was from Africa, so that kind of tied in with the snake.
ADAM: Well, photography is technical, so there’s an engagement with the materials and the techniques, the root
ANDREA: And then how did you get to the Medusa, the
of how you generate the image. That’s always been inter-
snakes with the dress?
esting and a challenge, but I’m not highly technical, while proper photographers are highly technical because, with
ADAM: The Medusa story seemed inaccessible to me be-
commercial photography, you have to really know your
cause it’s a feminine story, a woman’s story. Then my life
stuff to get good and consistent results. I don’t have that
transpired, and I completely got it. This picture is a very
kind of brain. I just follow my nose.
important picture for me because my best pictures have nothing to do with me. As soon as my hand, or my self-
ANDREA: Why are you attracted to the older methods of
consciousness, in on the artmaking process, I’ve limited it.
creating images?
Adam Fuss. Top and Bottom: Home and the World, 2013.
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Adam Fuss. The Space Between Garden and Eve, 2011.
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ADAM: I’m not exclusively attracted to them, and I
be satisfied with the images you were making with the
wouldn’t say the photogram is old-fashioned. I would say
machine because your hand wasn’t really in it.
that as an image-making technique within that medium, it’s ever-present. From Fox Talbot to Adam Fuss, within
ADAM: Well, there has to be something of me in the picture.
that history, it’s a substratum. It’s not historical, except the
It’s the nature of the mark — if it’s just me making the mark,
daguerreotype, but I don’t give a shit about that. I’m inter-
then I would define it as an ego mark, which is limiting. If
ested in it as a print medium, because it holds characteris-
I’m not in the process at all, then there’s no human there. So,
tics that are interesting to me.
it’s that balance. I think the perfect example is Pollock — he is moving the stick exactly where he wants it, and then the
ANDREA: Do you have an interest in digital photography?
paint is moving that 10 to 15 inches between the end of the stick and the canvas. It’s not him, yet he’s directing it. The
ADAM: I’m looking into it, thinking about it, exploring it. The
digital photography machine is designed to do that straight-
reason I got into photograms is because I like its photographic
forward, sharp, panoramic image. Everybody can do that,
language, which was different than the one that I’d been fed,
so where’s the individuality in it? I’m trying to put my hand
if you think of images as food. By the time I was 5, I probably
in that, to break that form, in the same way the photogram
had trillions of photographic images, all produced in pretty
for me is supposed to break the generic form of the same ap-
much the same way, the same conceit. When I reached the
paratus. So, for me, it has to be me and my hand.
age where I wanted to make my own work, I thought: “Fuck that. I don’t want to make images I’ve seen a trillion times;
ANDREA: What about people who use digital photography
I’m going to try to do something that has a little bit of its own
today? Let’s say that their mark is made in post-production.
life in it.” No matter how interesting the photographic picture was, it was photographically boring — the syntax, the
ADAM: That’s an analog photography hybrid. We’re in
vocabulary had been used so many times. That led me to the
a historical phase right now, in this transition to a new
photogram. The daguerreotype is the same story because it’s
image world. We actually don’t know where we’re going
such a radically different surface, it’s mirror and image at the
with photographic images. We just don’t know.
same time. Symbolically, that really attracted me. The digital presents the same quandary even more, so I’m interested
ANDREA: Is it disturbing to you in any way? Is there
in using the machines to generate images that their creators
any fear?
never thought of. In my last exhibition, there was a whole room of pictures made with digital equipment.
ADAM: No, when I think about what I’ve done historically, I think I’m a dinosaur. I recognize that analog photography
ANDREA: Would you say you’re a storyteller? Do you
is a historical medium, and I think that anyone working in
care if people who are viewing your work know about
historical photography is, in a way, irrelevant. The time
these references or not?
now is very churned up. There’s this amazing renaissance in analog photography because of the hybridization of the
ADAM: Well, hopefully these images hold all of this material.
digital and the analog. You can do things that were impos-
You stand in front of it, and you may not get it, but it gets
sible to do — this hybridization is extraordinary. We’ll go
you. It goes into you. It stays there. It’s percolating. Image is
on like that for a while, but where digital imagery is going
my language, but I’ll leave it to the viewers to decide if I’m a
is not where we are right now. It’s going somewhere else.
storyteller. I think of myself as a picture-maker. I’m still committed to exploring what I can achieve in the digital world.
ANDREA: Will you be involved?
ANDREA: For someone who wants to be a photographer,
ADAM: Well, I’m still here. The program that I set up for
what would your advice be?
myself to make images that I felt were fresh is one that can continue in any photographic medium or time.
ADAM: My advice is not to do it unless you are enamored with it. Look at historical images, identify the im-
ANDREA: Well... your themes are universal.
ages that speak to you and understand why they speak to you; then you can have a dialogue with that. I think that I
ADAM: The problem is I don’t have the vocabulary — I’m
chose photography because it was the medium I could be
not computer literate. It’s sort of like working through
removed from — it wasn’t my mark, my hand.
other people, which is okay. It’s just different. For me, this began as something I could do alone in the dark room.
ANDREA: Yet, previously, you said that you wouldn’t
My digital world becomes much more collaborative.
Adam Fuss. Top: Home and the World, 2010.; Bottom: The Space Between Garden and Eve, 2011.
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Adam Fuss. The Space Between Garden and Eve, 2011.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Evgeny Molodtsov, Earth Herbarium Diptych No 4, 2013.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Eran Gilat, Untitled from Life Science series, 2011.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Dominique Philippe Bonnet, Megalith # 16, France , 2015.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Dominique Philippe Bonnet, Megalith # 03, France, 2015.
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W I M D E LV OY E n au g hty b o y
ANDREA BLANCH: I went to the 1999 Venice Biennale,
maker to do double glass, and in between the glass we did
where I first saw your work. What I would like to know
the x-ray. Which is in itself transparent. Then, I thought if
is, were the sex-rays made within the same period as the
I really wanted to integrate them into something a bit ar-
work at the Venice Biennale?
chitectural – because I got a bit more ambitious afterwards – then I have to put the x-ray image on the glass itself. It’s
WIM DELVOYE: The first x-rays were done in 1999, or 98,
a pigment we burn into the glass, and that pigment I apply
but then I made some very good ones in 2000-2001, and that
with silk screen. They’re very beautiful because the pig-
was when I was showing the Cloaca machine – a large in-
ment is a very interesting material, it’s a medieval material.
stallation that turns food into feces. That was in 2000. Then I went to New York in 2001, I was in the New Museum – so I
ANDREA: So getting back to the sex-rays – the machine,
was immersed in that math and science kind of stuff.
I would imagine, was vertical, no?
ANDREA: Okay, so you were still working with the ma-
WIM: The first, second, and third machines were horizontal.
chine, the Cloaca at that time. Right? Or the x-rays?
The fourth one was vertical. The machine was starting to look more anthropomorphic. But then, at the same time, they were
WIM: No, I was much more into bronzes, and other types
done in different situations. I was assisted by different people.
of sculptures. But at that time, everyone’s fascination was
The big link they made content-wise is that they all ask the
for science, medical, clinical things, the human body, and
viewer: Where is the soul? Where is love? Or, where is the hu-
x-ray machines. X-ray machines were fun, and I returned
man feeling, or this kind of immaterial thing like the soul, or
to that. As soon as I got the Cloaca machine finished, I
the spirit? The next day, you see a very material image of the
went back to the x-rays.
human being, a scientific one, which means you’re not seeing their happiness, or love, or the soul. You see the human
ANDREA: I’ve seen three of the sex x-rays. On your
being as a machine as well. It’s the same, it’s like a Golem, a
website, I saw Dick, Blow, and Lick. These are fabulous
soul, more superior to us, in a way – it can live forever, but it
names. Did you do more than three?
doesn’t have a spirit. Like the Golem in old mythology.
WIM: Of course. I also have a series called States of the
ANDREA: Why did you decide to present sex in this way?
Cross or Viae Crucis. They are x-rays that are not dealing
I read that you gave the example of Tracy Emin, her art is
with sexual matters, but they deal with religion. They’re
about saying that she’s a girl. So do you think that this
a bit different from the sex-rays, in a sense, they’re not so
work says that you’re a boy?
explicit, and much more collage-like. WIM: A lot of my work, in general is machine-like; we ANDREA: With your gothic windows – Chapel (2008), 9
make spud guns, we make shit machines. It is not why
Muses (2001-02), and Days of the Week (2001) – did you
I started to do x-rays. I’m thinking of a movie where Jer-
use x-rays to do that at all? They look like they are x-
emy Irons plays two characters in the film.
rays, cut like stained glass. ANDREA: Oh, I remember that film, Dead Ringers (1988). WIM: In the beginning, I asked a stained glass window
All images © Studio Wim Delvoye, Belgium
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Loved it!
Most of my ideas are laying in a cave for a long time, until I find the right situation, the money, the people, the place.
WIM: It wouldn’t be such a scary movie if it was two
their licenses. For example, the tattooing of pigs – “Art
girls, in my opinion. From the beginning of the movie,
Farm” (1998-2010) and “Tattooed Pigs” (2005-06) – and
you know that this is going to end up wrong. There are
the radiographing of people, they think it’s an issue of
these twin brothers, and there was this really strange
safety with the sex-rays, or it’s an issue of being liable as
sexual tension. I was aware of that movie when we were
a doctor. The big taboo, mainly, is that you’re doing it for
doing these x-rays – you have science and the medical,
art. Globally, societies have a problem with art. We think
contrasting with human feeling and romance. By the
we are all into contemporary art, but as soon as contem-
way, only later I realized I could never do the sex-rays
porary art does something with technology, whose pur-
in the United States. This country is so religious. Doc-
pose is to save lives, then people’s real opinions come
tors are so worried about being sued. There’s certainly
out. If it’s not for saving lives, you cannot x-ray yourself.
a prudent attitude in the United States. For example,
You cannot do it for fun.
I needed doctors, and the doctor I found was so adamant to participate. He was astonished that he’d never
ANDREA: When I first read about the pig project, about
thought to do that. He happened to be in his midlife
the tattooing, someone said to me: well, what becomes
crisis. And it was also funny – I put my penis in the
of the pig, does someone kill the pig? I got very con-
mammography machine, and he said, “Look, I’ve been
cerned because I’m an animal activist. He said, you
here for years and never thought to put my penis in this
know what, I don’t know if he kills the pigs or not. Then,
machine.” I thought, that’s the first thing I think of. I
the more research I did, I found you had a pig farm, the
opened his eyes to his own clinic!
pigs are still alive and they will grow into old age. I think this is important.
ANDREA: That’s very funny. You don’t use photography that much in your work, am I right? You mainly use the
WIM: You know, when we have killed the pig, it’s be-
x-rays. How did you become so good at Photoshop if you
cause it has broken more than one leg. And do you
don’t have to use it all the time?
know why the legs get broken? The pig is more than 300 kilo.
WIM: Because it was the new thing, then. I wanted to see what could be done, and I was already having the
ANDREA: Oh, they can’t support their weight.
idea – for the x-rays – for a couple of years. Most of my ideas are laying in a cave for a long time, until I find the
WIM: No, they have not been genetically selected for a
right situation, the money, the people, the place. It has to
long life on these legs. And so people, for commercial
be so right, waiting in the cave; like cheese or wine. They
reasons, don’t wait for the 300 kilos. It takes many, many
get better in the cave. They get better when you wait.
years to reach the 300-kilos, because the growth is slow-
Things are so expensive. It’s usually very complicated
ing down, of course. We have pigs that got bigger and
to do. For example, with the pigs — I don’t know about
bigger and bigger. And then, we love them, because in
tattoos. I mean, it’s not my world, and so I began looking
China, we were showing them live as art pieces, and we
into the world of people much cooler than me, rougher
were mourning when we lost one. I lost an art piece.
than me. I have to befriend them for a while. I then have to befriend the veterinary doctor willing to give me a
ANDREA: Does anyone know you’re a vegetarian? I
“quick prize”. Can you imagine? Again, another piece,
don’t think anyone knows that.
just like with the x-rays, that would be even more complicated in the United States. Doctors are so afraid for
WIM: I’m not making a big noise about it.
Wim Delvoye, Butt 1, 2000.
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They think I’m Satan who is selling shit as art.
ANDREA: You’re not, but it’s interesting.
her legs, but I loved her neck.
WIM: People in paradise will be judged by some Holy
ANDREA: What about you – I’m curious, regarding your
Lord. He will look in his book and he will see that I’m
work. You really charged a thousand dollars for a turd
close to a Buddhist. I am not responsible for the death of
from your Cloaca machine?
many animals. I wouldn’t kill an ant in front of me. I will go out of the way for an ant, even a spider.
WIM: At that time? No, I would ask for much more.
ANDREA: Let me ask you, I notice you are doing a lot of
ANDREA: And people bought it?
sculptures at this time. I read that you would like to do an architectural project. Is that still true?
WIM: Oh yes.
WIM: Yes, basically, architecture and building is the big-
ANDREA: You have nerve! Chutzpah!
gest taboo. I need more lawyers than anything else I’ve done. Just having a building permit these days;
it’s
impossible. So, all these structures that I want to build
WIM: There were people from Bulgaria, buying with their Visa cards on the net.
depends on the community and a lot of fundraising, or some man with the means to help me. So, this is the
ANDREA: How many did you sell?
most difficult project, more difficult than anything I’ve done. So, I’m still doing the sculptures, often science-
WIM: Twenty-twenty-five. On September 11, 2001, the
based. My new series of tires are very geometric look-
machine was operating in Dusseldorf. One person paid
ing with the Mobius. My fascination with the Mobius is
a lot of money for September 11, 2001. It’s a lot of money
also something quite scientific. I turned lots of crucifixes
to have this in his collection, because he thought this date
into a double DNA helix. What else did I do? I turned
was more important than any other one. It’s just shit. All
19th century classic sculptures into Rorschach tests. So
shits are the same. Because that shit was produced on a
my work has a lot of science everywhere. It’s a different
symbolic date, he liked that. It was cool to have a Septem-
science, each time.
ber 11th shit. Then another person paid for his birthday, this happened on his birthday, and he couldn’t resist buy-
ANDREA: The sex-rays aren’t sexy in a pornographic
ing it. It’s like you buy an old newspaper, or a vintage
way. But I have to say, they’re shocking. My mouth
newspaper, on your birthday.
dropped when I looked at them. They’re very erotic, once you realize what you’re looking at. At first, you’re not
ANDREA: Was it your idea to charge for it?
sure, because they’re x-rays. WIM: That’s a good question Nobody ever, ever asks that. WIM: Some of them. This one lady, who has a very, very
They think I’m Satan who is selling shit as art. Basically,
beautiful neck, and it’s so beautiful, it’s sensual, because
the museum was pushing me to finance the show. They
the neck is making this amazing S line. After I compli-
thought this was a beautiful part of the project, to sell it,
mented this lady for her neck, she didn’t know how to
and to mimic the economy was a part of it. I already had
take it. She never had a compliment about that specific
the logo for the machine, and later on, I took on more lo-
part of her assets. She probably gets compliments about
gos. They are spoofs referring to capitalism, big brands
Wim Delvoye. Top: Pipe 2, 2001; Bottom: Kiss 2, 2001.
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You really have to know each other very well to do exactly what I’d like you to do.
made in America, most of them. I did Harley Davidson, I
WIM: Yes, yes, yes. You can recognize me – the very abject
did Proctor and Gamble, I did Ford… I made these logos
ones that nobody wanted to do. I had to sacrifice myself.
to mimic the economy, mainly. Like a naughty boy.
For example, I licked the arse of a pig, and put a dildo inside the vagina of a pig.
ANDREA: So you are the devil. ANDREA: Oh my God. WIM: Yes…The funny part is it was my job to sell them to make more money. Still, people bought it because a
WIM: It’s very cruel. I also penetrated a chicken.
drawing may be more expensive. By mimicking the economy, I was also making a parody of the art world. It’s like
ANDREA: A live chicken?
telling the outsiders of the art world, “Look, this is the art world. They’re all silly, rich people. They’re even paying
WIM: No, no, all were frozen and dead. I bought a dead
for my shit, hahaha.”
pig – actually, I raised a pig, and then, it was brought to me dead. And then I put my finger in it, the vagina. Oh, sorry,
ANDREA: Are you in one of the sex-rays? Did you par-
a vibrator, a dildo. There was no harm to the animals. I had
ticipate?
to sacrifice myself. It was frozen, and that’s the clever part, it was in a plastic bag. And the plastic bag, you don’t see on
WIM: I participated, but the doctor didn’t let me partici-
the x-ray, of course. So I licked the arse of a pig, but there
pate more than anybody else, so I had to keep looking for
was a plastic foil between my tongue and the pig. I didn’t
new people. When I had done a couple of shots, he didn’t
smell the pig or taste the pig. This is a self- portrait, and I
let me do anything for six months.
clearly recognize myself because I have my glasses on. It was a new self-portrait, it made it look like I sacrificed my-
ANDREA: How long did the project take you?
self for art, but there’s a plastic foil, people don’t know. So I’m also a bit of a trickster, but the sex-rays are not tricked
WIM: Years, many years. I was allowed to bring in other
at all. This is really about understanding an x-ray machine,
people and couples. But if I brought in a couple, after two
you know very well what x-ray machines do.
times, the doctor I worked with would say, “You’re done.” And if it didn’t work, I would have to have another couple
ANDREA: Are you having a show soon?
waiting in the waiting room. Some people wanted to do it, and they didn’t know each other. I would say, “You really
WIM: When I do it will be in Paris. Being in Paris is like be-
have to know each other very well to do exactly what I’d
ing home. It’s like a home match. I stay home to play, Paris
like you to do.” Some people would say, “Yeah, I want to do
is like my backyard. I always test my work in Paris before
this,” and sometimes I complied. People are so vain, they
I show it in other places, because I know that I have a lot of
all wanted to have their faces in the picture; they all wanted
fans there. Often when I worry about a new idea, I mix it up
to do a blowjob. I would explain to the ladies that, “Look, I
with an old idea, and I test it in Paris. If the reaction is good,
already have enough blowjobs. I have them in x-ray. I have
then it goes to other places.
them in MRI. I have them in all kinds of ways.” And they’d say, “I want to do this. Please!” Then sometimes the acts
ANDREA: You’re cautious.
were way more innocent, like just kissing it, or putting a finger in someone’s arse. These are not popular.
WIM: Because I change all the time. And I don’t see other people succeeding in what I do. It doesn’t go unpun-
ANDREA: You’re a director, love it.
ished, you see?
Wim Delvoye. Opposite: Lick 3, 2001. Following spread: Cloaca x-rayed truck (Black), 2000.
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JULIAN CHARRIERE
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JULIAN CHARRIERE
©Julian Charrière, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, courtesy DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
JULIAN CHARRIERE
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JULIAN CHARRIERE
©Julian Charrière, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, courtesy DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
JULIAN CHARRIERE
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JULIAN CHARRIERE
©Julian Charrière, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, courtesy DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin.
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MUSÉE SPOTLIGHT A RTIST
MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Linda Alterwitz, Keleen 2, from the series THERMAL, 2016.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Linda Alterwitz, Pilates Woman 5, from the series THERMAL, 2016
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R AC H E L R O S E m e , m ysel f , a nd I
ANDREA BLANCH: What inspired you to become an artist?
in the same time period. After I saw both works, I felt a sense of physical detachment, a loosening from the world
RACHEL ROSE: I have doubts about being an artist and
around me.
I continue to have doubts about it, as well as about what
I couldn’t get this feeling out of my head, especially after
art means in the world. I don’t know if something has
I’ve seen both works; it was constant. I wanted to think
inspired me to be an artist. Maybe I’ve evolved into a po-
about this idea, but I wanted to think about it in a realistic
sition of being something that’s called “an artist”.
way. I didn’t want to approach it through special effects and fantasy, but through real world examples of people
ANDREA: What gives you the doubts?
who have experienced this loosening or shifting and that perceptual state, because their bodies are extracted from
RACHEL: It is very hard to know what is meaningful and
all of the conditions that are fundamental to the way that
what is not.
we perceive here (on Earth). That’s what led me to get excited about working with an astronaut. I came across
ANDREA: How did you get to the production of mean-
an interview with Dave online, and then I sent a bunch
ing? It’s a very interesting way to describe what your art
of handwritten letters and emails to get in touch with
practice is about.
him. I searched everything on the Internet I could find that was related to him, and I finally interviewed him a
RACHEL: Living is the struggle for meaning. Every choice
few months later. I shot Everything and More in a Neutral
I make every day is a decision that means something: what
Buoyancy Lab – where astronauts used to go to practice
I eat, where I go, what I’m wearing, how we’re speaking
spacewalking, and I thought how basic and everyday
together right now. And art for me is an extension of that;
water is a tool for this. I also shot the chemical mixtures
the struggle to find some reason for being alive; a reason to
you see, which are just milk and ink and food dyes, things
do anything. Art is a concentrated place for those decisions.
from my kitchen. I was looking at early forms of special effects, when they were created with everyday materials
ANDREA: For instance, Everything and More. What
like this.
meaning would you like people to glean from that? ANDREA: Why did you want to include that in your RACHEL: I can’t say what I’d like other people to glean from
video?
it, because I don’t know what it will mean to other people. For me it’s more about the process of making the work. The
RACHEL: Because I wanted to feel how we can experi-
process of making the work acts as a container for me to
ence this infinite perceptual state through the everyday,
dig into something that I need to work through; something
through our bodies and our physical limitations. That
that has come up for me and keeps returning. Then through
was an important thread for all the disparate elements
making the work, I connect that feeling to something real.
in the video.
ANDREA: Why were you attracted to Dave Wolf’s story?
ANDREA: So when you went to the Lab, was it just you? Did you have people with you? Do you usually shoot by yourself?
RACHEL: It came from seeing Gravity and Interstellar
Portrait by Andrea Blanch. All stills courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias Gallery.
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RACHEL: It really depends on what I need. I’ll shoot
RACHEL: Dave’s story is remarkable – I interviewed him
things myself, sometimes I work with a camera opera-
for hours and there was endless content. I had to limit it
tor. For the shots coming in and out of the space shoot
and use the footage I was working with in a way that felt
I worked with a camera operator; for a lot of the GoPro
related and not literal.
shots underwater I put a GoPro in a pool and brought it up and down to create this amphibious shot.
ANDREA: Is it difficult for you to make choices? The editing process is about making choices, so I’m just curious
ANDREA: What were the biggest challenges for you with
if that problem arises.
Everything and More? RACHEL: Editing for me is like writing; it’s where I make
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the work. My timeline is choices that are always getting
ANDREA: Does Everything and More have anything to
moved around, shaped and shifted. I don’t know if it’s
do with being site-specific for the Whitney?
difficult for me to make choices, because that’s a lot of what I do. Putting everything together and being in that
RACHEL: It does. We projected the video onto a semi-
crisis is making something.
translucent screen that’s in front of the window, which is part of the building’s architecture. At certain moments
Rachel Rose. Above: still from Everything and More, 2015. High-definition video, colour, sound. 11 minutes and 33 second. Following spread: Installation view: Rachel Rose: Everything and More (October 30, 2015 – February 7, 2016) Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y. Photography by Ron Amstutz
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in the video you are very much in the work and in oth-
seamlessly. Is that a theme throughout your work?
er moments you are looking to the outside. Whenever
RACHEL: Every installation that I do is specific to
there’s black in the video projection, that reads on the
each video. There’s no one way that work is installed.
screen as translucent, opening a view to the outside
There are conditions that go alongside that work, to
city, placing you in the Whitney Museum at that time
do with sound, scale of screen, light, where you sit,
of day, in that moment. When the projection is brighter,
etc., but those conditions are always re-thought spe-
the screen turns opaque, and you are within the virtual
cifically to the building and to what the feeling of
space of the video.
the work is.
ANDREA: In your video, you move in and move out
ANDREA: I was reading about the soundtrack, I thought
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it was brilliant. Can you speak about that?
voice, so that you felt her sound as a human frequency that had been detached, moving in emptiness. This was
RACHEL: I looked at the singing voice – Aretha Frank-
like how I had imagined Dave’s body, floating in space.
lin’s rendition of “Amazing Grace” – and Dave’s voice
I erased out all her words, her voice was a pulsation,
through a spectrograph, a visual of all the frequencies
while his voice, because of how he spoke and because of
– that allows you to hand-erase frequencies. I used
how I recorded it, had flatness. Using the spectrograph
this tool to erase all the frequencies around the singing
was a way of putting these two in one state together.
Rachel Rose, still from Everything and More, 2015. High-definition video, colour, sound. 11 minutes and 33 second.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Atman Victor, Star Makers 1, 2015.
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Atman Victor, Star Makers III, 2015.
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Nick van Tiem, Top: Peter Bus, 2014; Bottom: Klaas Jobse, 2015.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Nick van Tiem, Top: Harrie Rutten, 2014; Bottom: Harrie Rutten his observatory, 2014
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BEFORE
AFTER
N A S A C L I M AT E C H A N G E the ha r v est
ISABELLE HAY: Some photos on the Images of Change
get altimetry data, you’re not going to get a photo. So a
website are older than the Internet. What was behind the
lot of the images you see are taken by the Landsat Satel-
curation of these images onto a web platform?
lite – I think we’re on Landsat 9. Holly and I go to the Landsat website and harvest the actual photographic im-
LAURA TENENBAUM: Climate change is very visual.
ages there. We then make them user friendly for the pub-
You can tell the story with words, but the story can also
lic. So we have to Photoshop them – but I don’t want to
be told with pictures. Some of the images date back to the
say they’re Photoshopped because that sounds like we’re
late 1800s, when women wore bustles and men wore top
doctoring the photos.
hats. In one of my favorite images, you can actually see a photographer and camera in the late 1800s in Alaska. I
ISABELLE: That’s interesting though. What are you do-
actually was the one who pulled those images together.
ing to them?
They are from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, funded by NASA, out of the University of Colorado. The
LAURA: Well, they come out in a format that’s not very
modern glaciologists found these very old images and
user friendly. So we have to cut and size them properly.
would go to the same longitude and latitude at the same time of year, and take the exact same photo.
HOLLY: Then we’ll put them on the site and make a before and after image, as well as a video to go through our
ISABELLE: So with the more recent images, how did you
carousel on our homepage. A before and after video.
all choose those locations? Were you aware of the changes that were taking place there prior to taking the image?
ISABELLE: In regards to the Images of Change app, were you trying to encourage exposure of these images in the
LAURA: These satellites are flying 24/7, taking photo-
public eye? Were they reserved to scientists and geolo-
graphs 24/7. All three of us could spend our entire career
gists before this?
just looking through the data record of NASA’s satellites, and we wouldn’t cover them all. It’s a matter of collating
LAURA: Absolutely not. It’s for everybody. There are
the images.
people whose sole jobs is to make sure the academic community or the corporate community has access to
HOLLY SHAFTEL: We don’t look at these images with
information that they need. For example, oil rigs need to
a trained eye, like some of the people who work with
know sea level data.
these science teams. I would even consider myself an untrained eye. So if there is a clear distinction between
HOLLY: Yes, they were originally intended for the general
the two images then that’s worthy of putting on our site.
public. We magnify them on social media: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a little on Google Plus. We started
ISABELLE: How are the images rendered from the satellites?
doing this in showing the images, lately we’ve been moving to videos. We’re actually in the middle of a redesign
LAURA: The different satellites have different instrumen-
for this gallery – to present the images ‘bigger and better.’
tation on them. Some have scatterometers, some have
We want to make the web version of Images of Change,
altimeters. If you have an altimeter you’re only going to
like the app, just as cool and user friendly.
Opposite: River Changes, China. 2001 – 2009. Courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.; Follwing spread: Urban Growth, China. July 1992 – April 2012. Courtesy of USGS/NASA Landsat.
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BEFORE
AFTER
This huge challenge is an opportunity to grow, and be what we could be as a society.
LAURA: NASA has four main mandates. One of the four
with DDT. Laws were passed to stop spraying DDT, en-
is to engage the next generation of scientists. Part of the
vironmentalists saved the eggs of Pelicans, and the Brown
fabric of NASA is that every single thing that we do is
Pelican came back. Nature wants to live.
in the public domain. All of this stuff would be out there even if Holly and I didn’t exist. We are like librarians with
HOLLY: And nature tries to fix itself.
this enormous library. We come along and say look, this is what we believe the public is wanting. We listen closely
ISABELLE: So much of these photos revolve around wa-
and carefully to what the public is interested in. Believe
ter: glaciers melting, river and lake shrinkage or growth,
me, the amount of satellites that we have, the amount of
flooding. Is water the central element of climate change?
observations that they’re taking, if the average person was trying to find something, they’d get lost in a maze forever.
HOLLY: Water is so central. 70% of the Earth is covered
Holly and I’s position is to make sure that the public has
in water.
the best possible access in the best possible way to the NASA images and data.
LAURA: We made a mistake calling it planet Earth.
ISABELLE: How do we know the difference between natu-
HOLLY: Right, it’s planet Ocean.
ral cycles and changes imposed on nature by man? What are the bench marks that you look for?
ISABELLE: What does the future look like? Frightening? Fixable? Adaptable? Have you gained enough under-
HOLLY: It’s clear when you look at urban expansion; like
standing from these images to know what it will be?
the islands in the United Arab Emirates. The image of the Aral Sea is clearly due to over irrigation.
LAURA: I have a whole spiel! Can you imagine if every time something negative happened at NASA we shrunk?
LAURA: I’m going to answer this question with a ques-
This huge challenge is an opportunity to grow, and be what
tion from an interview I had yesterday: If a baseball play-
we could be as a society. As a culture we’ve been taught to
er took steroids how do you tell if their homeruns are be-
embrace greed. So this is a great time to embrace some-
cause they hit a homerun or because of the steroids? The
thing else: a better health for ourselves and our planet.
way that you can tell is by looking at their batting record before the steroids and look at their batting record after
HOLLY: The Solid Waste Authority in Florida takes waste
the steroids. So scientists doing this right now are looking
and converts it to energy. Environmentally friendly ener-
at that exact question: what percentage of any one event
gy. So this is an example of finding an opportunity in the
can we attribute to anthropogenic global warming, and
two biggest problems (pollution and garbage, and climate
what percentage are we attributing to natural change.
change) that we face.
HOLLY: Global warming on steroids!
ISABELLE: Talking to NASA is like talking to God in a way – you guys are like an all-knowing entity. In regards to
ISABELLE: Where one river shrinks another floods. The eco-
climate change, what are you guys working on right now?
systems surrounding these sites are damaged – the plant and animal life specifically. Have you seen moments of repair?
LAURA: We have a suite of 20 Earth-orbiting satellites. We have six airborne missions this year – planes with NASA
LAURA: My husband and I had found a Peregrine Falcon.
instruments – collecting all sorts of data from trees, ice in
All my friends said “Peregrine Falcons? I thought they
Greenland, coral reefs. It’s ongoing.
were endangered? I thought they were almost extinct.” The falcons are now coming back, even in the city. Hu-
HOLLY: We even have balloons that have reached the edge
mans took the Brown Pelican to the brink of extinction
of space. Eyes on everything, everywhere, in every way.
Opposite: Topaz Solar Farm, California. October 2011 – January 2015. Courtesy of USGS/NASA Landsat. Following spread: Artificial Islands, United Arab Emirates. November 2001 – November 2012. Courtesy of USGS/NASA Landsat.
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BEFORE
AFTER
MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Josh Shagam, Semblance XXIV, 2015.
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Josh Shagam, Semblance XXV, 2015.
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Robin Cracknell, Magnox Al 80, 2013.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Carlo Alberto Rusca, from Ultra Corpo ciclo 1, 2014.
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FA B I A N O E F N E R swi s s p reci si o n
ANDREA BLANCH: In previous interviews, you’ve
very rational way like it’s often been done in science, or
mentioned aiming for a Jackson Pollock style of action
in a very emotional way as it’s been done in art. I’m try-
painting. What other artists’ or scientists’ processes are
ing to find intersections between emotional and rational
you influenced by?
approaches to our environment.
FABIAN OEFNER: Salvador Dali is one of my largest influ-
ANDREA: You work with potentially dangerous materials,
ences. Not in terms of aesthetic reasons, but more in terms
such as alcohol and fire in the 2014 Aurora series. In your
of conceptual reasons, which holds a theme of surrealism
work, have you ever encountered any dangerous situations?
and a dream world that he referred to. What I’m trying to do with my photographs, and when you look at the older
FABIAN: Yeah, quite often. The alcohol project with the
works – like the Jackson Pollock inspired ones where you
burning of alcohol was actually quite scary. I did it for the
see paint spiraling at a split second – that was a real mo-
first time and I wasn’t prepared for such a violent reaction.
ment in time. I used to do, and still do, photographs of
Photography was not in the foreground – it was more try-
split seconds: photographing events that happened in real
ing to take cover and get yourself out of the situation. And
life, like paint being thrown around, even though they’re
then I tried to find a more controlled experiment.
too quick for us to look at with the naked eye. They’re really there. In the Disintegrating series, where cars are com-
ANDREA: Your dedication to making the invisible vis-
ing apart, the idea behind it was to invent a moment in
ible and connecting different senses reminds me of a lot
time. When you look at those photographs, you think you
of Synesthesia phenomenon, an anomalous blending of
see a car disintegrating or exploding, when, in fact, it never
the senses, in which the stimulation of one modality si-
really existed. It’s just a cleverly made illusion of a car be-
multaneously produces a sensation in a different modal-
ing disintegrated, so I’m trying to evolve the idea of, what
ity. Basically, it’s a conceptual condition of mixed sen-
exactly is time? How do we perceive time? Photography is
sations. Are you interested in that concept?
the perfect medium, because it’s the medium of recording time, holding onto time, creating memories. And that’s the
FABIAN: When I do my projects, I don’t think that far. For
conceptual part of my work, which you don’t necessarily
me, it doesn’t feel like blending two different fields together
need to know about to appreciate the images.
– it’s not concept that brings together art and science, it’s a very natural process of fusing what other people would refer
ANDREA: So why do you think it’s important for art and
to as scientific tools to create art. I didn’t sit down and think:
science to intersect?
‘Now I’m going to combine art and science!’
FABIAN: Because they both have the same goal: to better
ANDREA: Would you put yourself in that genre?
understand the environment and the time we’re living in – it’s a reaction to our surroundings, and we shouldn’t
FABIAN: I would say so. I can’t deny that it’s connected
divide those two fields, as it has often been done. It’s just
to science. If you want to put it in a field, then science is
another approach to look at the same thing. When you
the one that it’s closest to.
combine the two, you find so much more about what’s going on around you, rather than to exclusively use a
ANDREA: What projects do you have coming up?
Portrait ©Studio Oefner. Following spreads: (first) Disintegrating No. 02, 2015; (second) Millefiori No. 12, 2013. (third) Disintegrating No. 04, 2013; (fourth) Millefiori No. 08, 2012.
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FABIAN: A few ones I can’t talk about and another one
ANDREA: In your work, you often focus on automobiles:
is something in 3D. It’s a non-commercial project. In the
Hatch and State of the Art. When did you become inter-
end, it’s going to be a sculpture, but I’m combining pho-
ested in cars?
tography and using all the knowledge and experience I’ve acquired from my past projects into this new project, so a
FABIAN: I’ve been interested in cars since I was a little
lot technical equipment will be involved.. Basically, it’s a
boy. Now, when I use cars in my art, it’s not because I find
split-second frozen in time as a sculpture.
it a fascinating object, aesthetically speaking, but because almost every person on the planet has an opinion on cars
ANDREA: Sounds like an interesting concept. Aren’t
or an emotional connection to them. That’s why I found
sculptures frozen in time?
it a very good object to use as a conveyor to transport ideas and get ideas across to people. It’s something that
FABIAN: Yes, to a certain extent, but it’s really the theme of
everybody understands.
that sculpture and not so much a side-note of the sculpture. ANDREA: So you’re saying that this is your way of comANDREA: Much of your work is about capturing and
municating? By using a car as your subject?
magnifying tiny moments in time. Do you think that the poetry of science is invisible to the naked human eye? Do
FABIAN: For certain projects, yes. I’ve done very few proj-
you believe it’s art’s duty to amplify the poetry of science?
ects with cars, but they’re the ones that get a lot of attention.
FABIAN: Yes, it can amplify science. Art can help in look-
ANDREA: You said that your collaboration with Ferrari
ing at science in a different way, but what I’m not try-
came about because they saw your TED Talk. What was
ing to do is to create didactic art – I don’t want to teach
Ferrari attracted to?
people something through art. If they just want to look at the image and appreciate the image for its beauty, then
FABIAN: Two months before a conference, I got a call from
that’s fine with me too. As an artist, you can never control
TED, and they asked me if I’d like to come on. They had
100% of what your art is about or how it’s perceived. To
seen an article in a scientific magazine. I thought it was an
me, that’s not the job of the artist.
interesting combination of bringing art and science together. I was trying to evolve that idea in this talk. Ferrari saw
ANDREA: What do you want viewers to take away from
it after it had gone online with about two million views.
your work? What thoughts are you seeking to provoke?
I guess Ferrari thought it was something new, something fresh that they and their audience hadn’t seen before.
FABIAN: It would like them to think about their environment. To embrace that beautiful tiny moment and the magic
ANDREA: You constructed your own mythology around
that’s happening around each and every one of us every day.
the origin of an unnatural object – the automobile – in Hatch. How did you construct that birth narrative?
ANDREA: Being present. Are you spiritual? FABIAN: Again, it’s a very natural process for me. I don’t FABIAN: Yeah, I’m more of an irrational-type spiritual
exactly recall the moment where I thought I could do a
person. Certainly, doing the art that I do, one has to be
birth of an object, rather than a human being or a living
spiritual in one way or another.
organism. I think 10 years from now you would have to do it with a smart phone – I believe that that’s the new
ANDREA: The picture of Ai Weiwei recreating the image
car, the object that will one day be more important than
of the Syrian child that was washed ashore, a refugee. A
the car. Up until now, it’s still the car that stands for our
lot of people thought it was very crass and cheap. I didn’t,
‘achievements’ in technology and life. In 10 years, I be-
but a lot of people did. What do you think about it?
lieve more people will be emotionally connected to the smart phone rather than the car.
FABIAN: From an artist’s point of view, it fits really well in his body of work; from a social point of view, anything
ANDREA: You don’t think they are now? Especially
that helps to point out the disasters happening there and
younger people.
to prevent these things from happening any further, is a benefit. People can be cynical about it and say it was
FABIAN: Yeah. But I think until that generation becomes the
very cheap, and that he gained more popularity from it.
key generation or the generation that determines our soci-
But I’m sure it wasn’t about that.
ety, it’d be another 10 years. But you’re absolutely right – it’s
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already a more influential object among younger people.
FABIAN: In Field of Sound, I was evolving the idea of creating something out of sound or using sound to create
ANDREA: So how did you construct that? Technically?
art. Having done it with photography already in Dancing Color, I thought that viewers can interact even further or
FABIAN: That was pretty straightforward – using the
understand the concept on another level if I do some-
model of that car, and creating a lot of plaster molds of
thing that they can walk around, look at, touch, and hear.
it. Basically, throwing that mold on top of the original
That’s why I created Field of Sound. It’s the same idea of
model car, which gives you the illusion of the shell being
using sound to create – it’s just another medium to reach
exploded off of the car. In fact, it’s actually drawn on the
more people.
car. It’s a sort of technical trick. ANDREA: You never had any formal training? ANDREA: How did you execute Disintegrating? Did you photograph them individually like a montage?
FABIAN: Originally, I studied product design, so I know quite a bit about manufacturing processes, as well as in-
FABIAN: Yeah, basically. I did a couple of newer ones of
teresting and innovative material. That still helps me a
that series which will come out soon.
lot with developing the project, whether it’s the Field of Sound series or the Ferrari project.
ANDREA: In this series, how do you see the concepts of motion and emotion intersecting?
ANDREA: What do you think about the world of photography, art, and science traversing each other? Is it exciting
FABIAN: In that case, I believe it’s the motion that creates the
for you? For instance, using an iPhone supposedly makes
emotion – the viewer looks at the photograph and believes
everybody a photographer. I don’t think that way.
to see a motion frozen in time, when, in fact, there is no motion at all. In creating those photographs, it’s like the slow-
FABIAN: I feel the same way about it, but it all feels more
est high-speed photography in human history. It took three
natural to me than it feels to you. I think the medium of
months to photograph it – it’s an extremely tedious process.
photography still presents a very important role, it just
But, then again, I’m Swiss, and we’re watchmakers, so…
changes in the way we value photographs.
ANDREA: That’s very true, very precision oriented. So,
ANDREA: Do you think you’ll use 3D?
why were you attracted to photography as a medium? FABIAN: In my case, 3D is quite an ancient technique FABIAN: To me, it’s been a tool to explore my work. I start-
to use. The whole social media realm is a more interest-
ed doing photographs when I was around 12. The camera
ing question because it’s all about getting ideas across,
has always been a natural object to me; it’s not something
whether it’s photography or sculpture or any other art
that I had to learn. I was very intuitive about taking pic-
form. The question is more about the channels you use
tures. Through the camera, you can learn about what’s
for your idea, rather than the medium.
going on around you and capture interesting things. ANDREA: And the process? ANDREA: Since you started photography, it’s really progressed. Now you have started using other mediums like
FABIAN: Yes. For artists, the process in general has become
Field of Sound that have taken you outside of the two-
much more important, especially for someone with social
dimensional realm. You’ve done video, but now you’re
media. In the past, you would go to museums to look at the
doing performance with Field of Sound. How did that
final artwork, and, at best, you would have an explanation
transition take place?
about how the artist created that picture, painting, or sculpture. Now, everybody already takes part in the creation of
FABIAN: I don’t know if you have seen the Dancing Col-
the artwork because, with the whole social media thing,
ors series where you would see salt grains dancing on a
you share the whole process of the art with your audience
speaker. The idea was to visualize sound or music through
when you start doing it. I’m the older generation because
a visual medium like photography, so I put salt grains on a
I’m 31. Young artists starting now already have a better un-
speaker and played music through it. Depending on what
derstanding of what you can do with social media, because
kind of music you would play, the salt grains would dance.
they have grown up with it. To me, it doesn’t feel as natural as to somebody who is in their twenties or even younger.
ANDREA: I loved that concept! I think it’s brilliant.
It’s something new, something that I have to learn.
Fabian Oefner. Following spread: Still Photograph from the Project The Visualisation of Speed; in collaboration with Ferrari.
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Sasha Tamarin, TU-154, 2013.
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Roberta Trentin, Bios/βίος (2013), 2013
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M. Apparition, Delicata de la Concepciรณn, 2006/8.
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M. Apparition, Delicata de la Concepciรณn, 2006.
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A DA M B R O O M B E R G & O L I V E R C H A N A R I N the a r t o f p ro f ilin g b y Ar th u r M i l l er In the 21st century art itself along with such concepts as
eliminating shadows while providing enough data for a
aesthetics has undergone radical transformations. Not
three-dimensional facial reconstruction. Broomberg and
unexpectedly this came about from the fusing of art with
Chanarin explore the situation in which such cameras
science and technology into what I call in my recent book,
can possess sufficient clarity for facial recognition.
Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science is Redefin-
To do so they built a prototype of the new Russian sur-
ing Contemporary Art,” a “Third Culture,” from which
veillance cameras equipped with four lenses. Over
has emerged an “artsci” which I predict will eventually
1,000 Muscovites volunteered as models for their photo
be referred to simply as “art.” This avant-garde has come
‘shoot’, including the Pussy Riot band member Yekat-
to fruition in our Age of Information, the Age of Big Data.
erina Samutsevich. The photographs are extraordinary.
In their stunning book, Spirit is a Bone, the British-based
“What we’re seeing is the negation of that humanity: the
photographers Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
digital equivalent of a death mask,” they write. The sub-
look at what happens when technology and big data fuse
jects are portrayed in black and white from above, below,
with photography. The first two hundred pages are made
profile and three-quarter view. The result is that there are
up of portraits on the right-hand page with the subject’s
no shadows in their portraits.
profession on the opposite page. Then follows thirty
Bloomberg and Chanarin selected one of these angles,
pages of text from a conversation between the photogra-
different ones for different people, and trimmed it in such
phers and Elyl Weizman, professor of Spatial and Visual
a way as to display only the face as if it were lifted off
Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London.
the skull. It’s two dimensional but appears to have three.
Bloomberg and Chanarin’s theme is surveillance art, a
Expressions are bland because the subjects are assumed
medium spun out of surveillance methods ratcheted up
to have been unaware of being photographed and so are
with 21st century technology - video-recording devices,
unposed, passive. On the facing page the subject’s profes-
closed-circuit television and digital cameras hooked up
sion appears but no names.
to hard discs. London is one of the most heavily sur-
The book’s title is taken from Hegel’s The Phenomenolo-
veilled cities where cameras are constantly recording.
gy of Spirit, where he discusses the two pseudo-sciences,
Bloomberg and Chanarin have focussed on another high-
physiognomy and phrenology. In the former, facial ex-
ly surveilled society, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
pressions are critical and in the latter it is the material-
In a famous appearance on Russian television, the Na-
ity of the skull underneath that is supposed to reveal the
tional Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden
essential truth about the subject. In Nazi Germany these
asked Putin whether the government spies on its citi-
two subjects cost millions their lives.
zens by monitoring their communications. Speaking to
Today building up a person’s face from their skull, fo-
Snowden as one spy to another, Putin denied this, insist-
rensic anthropology, or facial recognition, is used to pass
ing that it was against the law in Russia.
judgement on the subject only as regards whether the
Actually Snowden didn’t phrase the question precisely
skull belongs to a murder victim or perhaps the mur-
enough. Like England, Russia is highly surveilled with
derer. Whereas facial marks from a knife or other weapon
closed-circuit cameras and this is what most interests
can heal, if deep enough they are forever embedded in
Broomberg and Chanarin. The reason is that a new gen-
the skull. Although DNA analysis can now identify a
eration of camera has appeared in Russia. Using an array
skeleton, what the person actually looked like is another
of lenses it can shoot a face from different angles thereby
matter. This requires adroit handiwork such as plotting
Portrait by artist to come. All images of Sprit Is A Bone, by Adam Bromberg & Oliver Chanarin published by Mack. ©Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin 2015 courtesy MACK
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Opposite and above: ŠAdam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin 2015 courtesy MACK
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contours when building up facial tissue. Sometimes the
Jews, gypsies, thieves, political agitators (aka revolu-
reconstructed facial tissue can be overlaid with a photo-
tionaries), etc. Whereas Sander employed an 8x10 inch
graph of the alleged person for further verification.
plate camera, Bloomberg and Chanarin used a camera
The truth is in the bones, as Hegel argued. After all bones are
purpose-built for facial recognition.
unchanging even in death, unless chipped away for plastic
Nowadays photographs serve in the search for individu-
surgery which is easily detected. What can we say about the
als rather than groups. Photo-id is required just about ev-
link between the skull and what overlays it, the face?
erywhere in order to identify an individual. At borders,
What Broomberg and Chanarin have done in their book
such as airports, additional photographs are often taken.
is to create an archive inspired by August Sander’s Citi-
But these photographs are not a recourse to physiogno-
zens of the Twentieth Century. Sanders began it after
my – you are usually instructed not to smile. The photo-
World War I in Weimar Germany but was interrupted by
graphs in this book go beyond a photo-id. Although two
the advent of World War II. It contains the faces of bank-
dimensional they appear to be wrapped like skin around
ers, poets, revolutionaries, the unemployed, migrants
a skull and so form a new sort of representation, which
and so on, often named. Sander’s archive was studied
“returns us back to the [unchanging] skull, and the ‘truth’
closely, read and reread, interpreted and reinterpreted.
underneath the face,” writes Elyl Weizman. In this way
In Nazi Germany it took on a new and sinister meaning
we return to a form of the phrenological principle of pre-
following the doctrine of Aryan supremacy effectively
diction, “of looking at various patterns to see the future,”
sentencing certain racial groups to death. Bloomberg
says Weizman. However, he continues, the future is the
and Chanarin “see disturbing parallels of this totalitarian
domain of the algorithms whose grist are the big data sets
regime in present-day Russia,” which is why they chose
that make up digital photographs.
Russia as the stage for their project.
Bloomberg and Chanarin’s work is a fine example of the
Bloomberg and Chanarin’s archive differs from Sand-
fusion of art and technology giving rise to images never
ers in many ways. They never state names, only pro-
seen before. They are the product of more than art and
fessions. One photograph has the caption “The Revo-
technology moving ahead hand in hand. Rather these
lutionary.” The face belongs to the Pussy Riot band
two disciplines are merged into a single discipline. This
member, Yekaterina Samutsevich. What the state ma-
leads to a new aesthetic which is the sum of the visual
chinery sought in Sander’s photographs, as it did in
image and the technology that produces it. Only through
Alphonse Bertillon’s ‘mug shots’ in Paris in 1879, was
understanding this new technology can the work of art
types, whether people who looked a certain way were
be most deeply appreciated.
Above: ©Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin 2015 courtesy MACK. Opposite: Casual Labourer.
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©Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin 2015 courtesy MACK
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Above: ŠAdam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin 2015 courtesy MACK. Opposite: The Philosopher.
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PENELOPE UMBRICO
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Penelope Umbrico, Installation View: Everyone’s Photos Any License (654 of 1,146,034 Full Moons on Flickr, November 2015), 2015
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PENELOPE UMBRICO
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Penelope Umbrico, Installation view: Four photographs of Rays of Sunlight in Grand Central Station, Grand Central Terminal, 1903-1913, 1920, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1934, 1937, 1940, 1930-1940, 1935-1941, 1947, or 2010, by John Collier, Philip Gendreau Herbert, Edward Hulton, Kurt Hulton,Edward Lunch, Maxi, Hal Morey, Henry Silberman, Warren and Wetmore Trowbridge, Underwood & Underwood, Unknown, or Anonymous (Courtesy: Associated Press, the author, Bettmann/Corbis, Hal Morey / Getty Images, Getty Images, Hulton Collection, Hulton-Getty, Hutton Collection, New York City Municipal Archives, New York Transit Museum, New York City Parks and Landmarks, Royal Geographical Society, SuperStock/ Corbis, Underwood & Underwood, Warren and Wetmore, or Image in Public Domain), 2015
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Brice Krummenacker, Top: Office; Bottom: Tinder Profile; 2015
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Brice Krummenacker, Top: Robert Phone Home, 2015.
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B I L L V I O L A ti m e ’s pa l ette
“Between How and Why.” (in: Bill Viola. “Reasons for
vidual, and on the confusing mix of signals and messages swirling
Knocking at an Empty House. Writings 1973-1994.” Ed-
around us that do not address a human being’s fundamental need
ited by Robert Violette in collaboration with the author.
to know and live the “why” of life. Talk of machines, technologies,
Thames and Hudson Ltd, London in association with the
capabilities, costs, markets, infrastructures, offers no guidance and
Anthony D’Offay Gallery, London, 1995, pp. 256-257.)
is inadequate and irrelevant to the development of our inner lives.
First published as a statement for the catalogue Medien-
This is why art today, traditionally the articulation and expression
kunstpreis (Karlsruhe, Germany: Zentrum für Kunst und
of the “why” side of life, is now so important and vital, even though
Medientechnologie, 1993) Courtesy: Bill Viola Studio.
it remains confused and inconsistent in its response to the new demands and responsibilities placed on it in this time of transition.
The technologies of the optical image (photography, cinema,
The new technologies of image-making are by necessity bringing us
video) are machines for the close of the machine age. They are
back to fundamental questions, whether we want to face them or not.
machines that produce content, that have as their product the
The development of schemes for the creation of images with comput-
direct imprints of the outside world. They give us the world
ers is an investigation into the structure and fabric of the world we
back, and for this they are much more profound and mysterious
observe and participate in. Spend time with a video camera and you
than people realize. By nature they are instruments not primar-
will confront some of the primary issues: What is this fleeting image
ily of vision, but of philosophy in an original ancient sense.
called life? Why are we here sharing the living moment, a moment
Looking at the videotape recorder, it is difficult to realize that this
that is past yet present? And why are the essential elements of life
machine, this object, comes from the earth. The metals and plas-
change, movement, and transformation, but not stability, immobil-
tics that comprise its physical mass are all earth materials. They
ity, and constancy? Faced with the content of the direct images and
come from the ground. Even the electricity that activates it is a
sounds of life in one’s daily practice as an artist, questions of form,
fundamental element of the natural environment. The history
visual appearance, and the “how” of image-making drop away. You
of much of human culture, particularly in the Western world,
realize that the real work for this time is not abstract, theoretical, and
has centered on the development of the material. The contempo-
speculative - it is urgent, moral, and practical.
rary electronic technologies of video and computer are simply the
Responding in an adequate way to the questions of “why” de-
most recent stage of this evolution. Historically in the West, the
mands a new balance between the emotions and the intellect,
work of Isaac Newton, and the scientific revolution that followed
and a reintegration of the emotions, along with the very hu-
him, greatly accelerated the emphasis on the material. His dis-
man qualities of compassion and empathy, into the science of
coveries and new approach shifted the inquiry into the nature of
knowledge. Our work today as artists is not about describing
the world from religious/philosophical to scientific speculation,
the arrival at and possession of a goal, but instead it is about
from emotive affinities to material causes, from empathy to rea-
illuminating the pathway. It is not about a system of proofs
son: the apple now falls not because it desires to be at its proper
and declarations, but a process of Being and Becoming.
resting place, the earth, but because a physical force called grav-
Media art, in its possession of new technologies of time and im-
ity pulls it there; the celestial becomes mechanical, and the pri-
age, maintains a special possibility of speaking directly in the
mary mode of questioning the world becomes not why, but how.
language of our time, but in its capacity as art, it has an even
Today, at the close of the twentieth century, we are finding that
greater potential to address the deeper questions and mysteries
questions of “how” are not enough to carry us forward through the
of the human condition. This is the challenge to the media arts
millennium. The crisis today in the industrialized world is a crisis
at the turning point of the century and the passage into the
of the inner life, not of the outer world. It is focused on the indi-
millennium that lies just before us.
Portrait by Paul Rusconi, Los Angeles, April 2014. All following images from Bill Viola, 2015, published by Thames & Hudson.
187
Over the years, I continue to explore the profound themes of human existence, life, death, and their mysteries.
MUSÉE MAGAZINE: When I was speaking with you at
BILL: A work that was first shown at MoMA in New
your opening, you mentioned that you’ve been returning to
York in 1987, Passage, takes 7.5 hours to unfold. The
your old notebooks, and that you wanted to revisit your old
tape that was edited for this piece is 23 minutes long,
work. What prompted you to revisit your past catalogue?
but the playback machine plays it at 1/16th speed, so we see one frame at a time. The images are of a 4-year-old’s
BILL VIOLA: My notebooks are filled with ideas for new
birthday party, and when slowed down and “stretched”
works. One or two will surface as I scan them from time
so much, still contain the essence of the emotions that
to time. Sometimes an idea appears in my notebooks sev-
these children are experiencing. This way, this delight-
eral times over the years in slightly different forms, until
ful experience is held for longer, something that all of us
the work is finally ready to be created.
have wanted to do, to stop or slow down time in order to capture the moment.
MUSÉE: Your recent exhibition of “Inverted Birth” (2014) at James Cohan Gallery is reminiscent of “Emergence” (2002,
MUSÉE: In your talk “The Movement In The Moving Im-
commissioned by the J. Paul Getty Museum)—do you see it
age” at UC Berkeley (2009), you mentioned that, when
as a continuation, and do you often see later pieces as con-
making art, you have a very clear image in your head
tinuations of your earlier work? Or an elaboration, perhaps?
that you want to create in reality. Do you make visual modifications in the process of creating your videos, or
BILL: Over the years, I continue to explore the profound
does it usually not deviate far from your original ideas?
themes of human existence, life, death, and their mysteries. The same questions are found in all my works, just
BILL: My ideas come in different ways. Sometimes I see
expressed in new ways.
the whole piece at once and it is a matter of filling in
These two works you mention contain a paradox–they
the details while shooting. Often, however, the “whole
somehow represent birth and death at the same time. In
piece” is not the end of it, but other parts happen in the
“Emergence”, a young man rises from a watery cistern as
making that resolve the work and give it depth. Other
in a kind of ascension, he is alive and yet he is also dead.
times I need to develop an idea to bring it to life. Perform-
“Inverted Birth” depicts a series of violent actions run in
ers also bring a level of collaboration that can develop
reverse, as if the person is awakening from the dead, and
the idea. My longtime partner Kira Perov also assists in
yet his transformation is also a birth.
helping with creative decisions.
MUSÉE: Spirituality and theology are two major themes in
MUSÉE: When you’re working on a project, what comes
your work. How did your fascination with that genre start?
first: the technology or the concept? How does technology influence ideas, and, conversely, how do ideas influ-
BILL: Spirituality is not a genre, it is a lifelong experience,
ence technology?
a search for a path, or some answers… Theology per se is not really part of this search nor part of my work. I have
BILL: I have been very fortunate that technology and my
used some religious metaphors in a few of my pieces
work have had a parallel development, allowing me to
(“Emergence” is one of them), but religious art is over-
be constantly expanding my palette. In some cases the
whelming in its representation of the emotions and the
idea for a piece comes before the technology is ready, and
mysteries, and the artists who created these works were
then I am pushing its limits. Sometimes the invention
extraordinary in their skills. It is impossible to ignore the
of a piece of equipment inspires the work, as with the
Renaissance, for example, or Orthodox icons, or Greek
advent of flat panel screens that could be mounted on a
sculptures of the gods.
wall. The first thing I did was to turn them vertically, then I was able to make video portraits and do a study of the
MUSÉE: You’ve mentioned that “emotion is a kind of
emotions, the “Passions” series. Using these tools has al-
movement”—how do you believe the medium of film best
lowed me to extend and expand my vision, and continue
captures emotion?
exploring the inner essence of the world around me.
Bill Viola, Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), 2014 (installation view) Color High-Definition video polyptych on four vertical plasma displays. 55 x 133 x 4 in (140 x 338 x 10 cm) Duration: 7:15 minutes Executive producer, Kira Perov Performers: Norman Scott, Sarah Steben, Darrow Igus, John Hay Photo: Peter Mallet
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Bill Viola. Earth Martyr, 2014. Color High-Definition video on flat panel display, 42 3/8 x 24 1/2 x 2 5/8 in. (107.6 x 62.1 x 6.8 cm), 7:10 minutes, Executive producer: Kira Perov, Performer: Norman Scott
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Bill Viola. Water Martyr, 2014. Color High-Definition video on flat panel display, 42 3/8 x 24 1/2 x 2 5/8 in. (107.6 x 62.1 x 6.8 cm), 7:10 minutes, Executive producer: Kira Perov, Performer: John Hay
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Bill Viola. Above and opposite: Inverted Birth, 2014, Video/sound installation, Color high-definition video projection on screen mounted vertically and anchored to floor in dark room; stereo sound with subwoofer (2.1), Projected image size: 16 ft 5 in. x 9 ft 3 in. (5 x 2.81 m), 8:22 minutes, Executive producer: Kira Perov, Performer: Norman Scott
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Jerry Takigawa, False Food Untitled F-300, 2010.
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JULIUS VON BISMARCK
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JULIUS VON BISMARCK
Julius von Bismarck, Catatumbo I, 2015. Courtesy of Alexander Levy, Berlin
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MARCUS DESIENO
Marcus DeSieno, A Photograph of the Crab Nebula Eaten by Bacteria Found on a Table at a Red Lobster Restaurant, 2014.
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MARCUS DESIENO
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Marcus DeSieno, A Photograph of the Planet Saturn Eaten by Bacteria Found on an Adulterer’s Engagement Ring, 2015
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MARCUS DESIENO
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MARCUS DESIENO
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Marcus DeSieno, A Photograph of the Whirlpool Galaxy Eaten by Bacteria Found in a Motel’s Heart-Shaped Hot Tub, 2014
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MARCUS DESIENO
Marcus DeSieno, Top: A Photograph of the Planet Venus Eaten by Bacteria Found Inside My Ex-Girlfriend’s Vagina, 2014; Bottom: A Photograph of the Baby Boom Galaxy Eaten by Bacteria Found in My Father’s Saliva, 2015
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MARCUS DESIENO
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Marcus DeSieno, A Photograph of a Gas Cloud Above a Black Hole Eaten by Bacteria Found Inside a Glory Hole, 2015
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N A S A S PAC E ar bi trar y sel ecti o n
i n trod u c ti on b y Joh n Hut t
The language of space can seem like the language of hyperbole: the
We typically have a paper or figures from the principal
light of a thousand dying stars, the mass of twenty-five suns in
investigator (PI) and scientist studying the object in ques-
the area of less than a pinprick, billions and billions of millennia.
tion. Then our team researches that initial data to see what
This is a symptom of our inability to process or grasp anything
points we’ll be communicating, what the story of the sci-
close to the infinite.
ence is. We have a science imager who then works on the
Though, the only thing more terrifying than an infinite universe
data according to that initial guiding science concept, and
is a finite universe.
then we meet as a group to review drafts, further refine the
Our eyes are as limited as our brains; we can only see a tiny frac-
science being discussed, confirm points of clarity and aes-
tion of light, so in an attempt to wrap our heads around the rest
thetics, and edit the visual representation until all (or most)
of the vast spectrum of light, we color images in hues that we can
of the group is satisfied. That version is then parsed back
understand. We point our telescopes and measure X-rays from
to the PI until they are also satisfied. Finally, the materials
far away galaxies, we measure the heat of oxygen in supernovas,
are circulated among another team of scientists at the CXC,
and we hear about black holes eating each other. Doesn’t it feel
MSFC, and NASA.
good to say “we” in these contexts? As if you or I had any hand in astrophysics, space telescopes, or could measure the hydrogen
JOHN: How does the process of taking an astronomical
density of a cloud of interstellar dust.
picture differ from that of a digital camera or a tradi-
Who is actually responsible for making aesthetic decisions about
tional camera?
these pictures of space? Is there someone deciding that the hydrogen should be a certain shade of blue? How does data that we are physi-
KIMBERLY: When a satellite observes an object in space,
cally unable to see get transposed onto something we can see? Is there
its camera records photons, a packet of energy that makes
an artist-in-residence making these pictures? How do they do it?
up electromagnetic radiation. These recordings of packets of energy come down to Earth from the spacecraft via
So we asked Kimberly Kowal Arcand, the Visualization Lead at
NASA’s Deep Space network coded in the form of 1’s and
the Chandra X-Ray Center and the Smithsonian Astrophysical
0’s. Scientific software then translates that data into a table
Observatory. She also wrote a book on this subject entitled “Col-
that contains the time, energy, and position of each photon
oring the Universe” with Megan Watzke and Travis Rector.
that struck the detector during the observation. The data is further processed with software to form the visual repre-
JOHN HUTT: Who is responsible for making the final call
sentation of the object.
on the aesthetic decisions of X-ray or composite images?
There are some major overlapping elements, the main one being the use of CCD detectors. Just like in many digital
KIMBERLY KOWAL ARCAND: It is not one person. The
cameras, most astronomical observatories today use CCDs.
responsibility rests with, in our case, the Chandra commu-
To get around the scale and field-of-view issue, multiple
nications group and the Chandra Mission as a whole. Our
CCDs can be used in a single camera. Astronomy also uses
group has PhD astrophysicists, a Science Imager, a Visu-
broadband and narrowband filters, so for example, a hy-
alization Lead, a Principal Investigator of a research team
drogen alpha (h-alpha) filter will isolate the light produced
that studies how people understand cosmic images, a sci-
by warm hydrogen gas. Filters are used to map characteris-
ence writer, an educator, as well as other members special-
tics, such as the temperature and density.
izing in computer science and data visualization.
Additionally, many telescopes use spectrometers. Chan-
Portrait by Kim Steph Ewens.
205
Like any photograph taken, there is of course some level of subjectivity, from the field of view selected to the colors applied.
dra has the High Energy Transmission Grating spectrom-
Experts, however, first wonder how the image was pro-
eter (HETG). Grating spectrometers can measure energy
duced, what information is being presented in the image,
to an accuracy of up to one part in a thousand, so they’re
and what the creators of the image wanted to convey.
used to study of detailed energy spectra, distinguishing
Another area where the experts and non-experts differ is in
individual X-ray lines. This allows researchers to explore
color. Non-experts don’t consider blue to be hot, but scien-
the temperature, ionization and chemical composition of
tists often do. Experts tend to visualize blue as hot and red
what we are looking at.
as cool. When you have an astronomical image that shows hot material around a galaxy, do you color it blue or red?
JOHN: Is there an agreed-upon color scheme for non-
The primarily red image might actually convey the heat of
visible light? Infra-Red is red, for example? What about
the object better, even though its color mapping would be
in composite images?
considered non-standard for a scientist. What is the intent of the image? For example (http://chandra.harvard.edu/
KIMBERLY: We stick with the data in each case. There is
photo/2006/bhcen/) was originally in an inverse color
not an absolute “standard” color scheme per se, though
scheme of mostly blue with red loops. But a point of the
often astronomers assign colors in chromatic order with
science was the vast clouds of hot gas, which when colored
the lowest energy in red, middle in green, highest in blue.
blue looked frozen. So after testing the image, we changed
Sometimes (many times) that doesn’t work for the data,
it to be primarily red. It made the most sense for the data
or isn’t the point of the data. If, for example, we want to
and the audience.
showcase the elemental composition of an exploded star, chromatic RGB wouldn’t make sense.
JOHN: How much leeway do they have outside of the data?
JOHN: Since we (humanity now) put a lot of stock in what
KIMBERLY: The point is that the image processing – the
we see, the immediate reaction of the viewer is to piece to-
colorizing – is adding to the information quotient of the data.
gether an understanding based on the colors. The images
Like any photograph taken, there is of course some level
should be intuitive; how do you know what is intuitive?
of subjectivity, from the field of view selected to the colors applied. In X-ray imaging, for example, you are going
KIMBERLY: Our research project Aesthetics & Astronomy
completely outside the range of human vision, so all color
investigates just that. How do people respond to these im-
applied is representative. We also have a sort of aesthetic
ages aesthetically and contextually, experts and non-ex-
viewpoint that is common through many of our resulting
perts alike? What misconceptions might arise based on the
images, but the science drives the story and we keep our
initial visual response?
audience(s) in mind.
Starting with visual processing, what an expert sees when
“Retouching” may sound like a dirty word in this case, as
looking at an astronomical image is not necessarily what
it sounds like someone would be slimming the waistline
the novice sees.
of an exploded star. But there are necessary steps to move
In our studies, we’ve seen that the non-expert more often
from information that is inherently invisible to the human
moves from aesthetics to astronomy. Novices tend to be-
eye - coming from objects thousands, millions, or billions
gin with a sense of awe and wonder, and focus first on the
of light years away - to data that we can make visual and
aesthetic qualities of the astronomical image being shown.
contextual sense of.
Oopposite: Courtesy of NASA/CXC/SAO. Following spred: Courtesy of NASA/CXC/KIPAC/S.
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
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Michael Jantzen, Down the Road, 2015
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
Michael Jantzen, Under Construction, 2015
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
Michael Jantzen, New Mexico Mirage, 2015
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
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MICHAEL JANTZEN
Michael Jantzen, Mobile Home Park, 2015
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Netta Laufer, from the series 25ft: Top: Gazelle; Bottom: Dog, 2015.
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Netta Laufer, from the series 25ft: Top: Dog; Bottom: Leopard, 2015.
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M A R V I N H E I F E R M A N guest cura to r
STEVE MILLER: Marvin, the reason we thought about
MARVIN: What do you mean mess?
asking you to be a guest editor for this issue of Musée is because I knew you were working on a project related to
STEVE: Meaning, in the early history of photography
science and photography.
certain kinds of standards and qualities were set up by professional societies to organize these qualities. But
MARVIN HEIFERMAN: It’s “SEEING SCIENCE: Photog-
once amateurs got a hold of photography they started
raphy, Science, and Visual Culture”, and I’m organizing
to do whatever they wanted to do. Artists started using
it for University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
photography as a tool to pay homage to or challenge
It seems to me it’s an interesting time to be looking at
painting. So the idea that photography would remain in
how the sciences make and use photographs, and how
the realm of science was blown out the window. Now,
the sciences and scientists, themselves, are represented
in this conversation, we are coming back to photography
in photographic imaging. “SEEING SCIENCE” starts in
and science. How do you bring it back to science?
April and features various onsite components, but at the center of the project is a website (http://seeingscience.
MARVIN: Well, photography has always been useful to
umbc.edu) that over the course of a year, we will build up
multiple audiences. Early on, it was developed by people
the content on, and we hope will reach a broad audience.
who were “amateurs” who were, in fact, scientists needing to figure out a way to capture data and information.
STEVE: It’s a given that photography is an invention of sci-
Photography was a rarified pursuit and a rarified tool.
ence, and that one of the early hopes of photography was
But in the 1880s when George Eastman made snapshot
that it was going to be the dispassionate eye of observation.
cameras widely available, explorations in photography were not just for the amateur, gentleman scientists, but
MARVIN: Something important for me is to track how
for everyone. Scientists, artists, and the general public
that “eye of observation” idea plays out. I’m working on
adopt and adapt photography to suit their very differ-
a timeline about photographic imaging and the sciences,
ent desires and needs. They explore and set up different
that starts with the first known lens from 1000 BC; a piece
ways of seeing and evolve new vocabularies or dialects
of carved crystal believed to have been used to magnify
to do what they need or want to do.
something, and runs through recent images of Pluto. The first known use of the word ‘scientist’ was in 1834, by
STEVE: What about someone like Daguerre? I see him
a British scholar named William Whewell. The word pho-
as much an artist as anything else. How do you think
tography first appears in 1839. Science and photography
he saw himself?
go hand in hand, always have, always will. MARVIN: Daguerre was an entrepreneur, a scientist, a STEVE: So photography started out as a way to practice
painter, and a showman who produced spectacular diora-
and document science. But, soon amateurs, pornogra-
mas in 19th century Paris. He was uniquely positioned to
phers, and artists, came in and high-jacked this new in-
understand the multiple functions photography can serve.
vention as they looked for commercial applications and emotional interpretations. How do you sort out this mess
STEVE: So he was important in terms of the scientific and
today and the return to science?
technical aspects of photography?
Portrait by Michelle Leedy. Following spread: Crack extension in Anuket. 22/01/2015 8:00 pm. ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
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MARVIN: Daguerre was only one of many innovators who
MARVIN: Yes, and photograms were a novel and interest-
contributed to the early development of photography. At the
ing way to document and represent plant specimens and
same time the Daguerreotype was introduced, Henry Fox
structures. The fact that photographic images could be col-
Talbot was experimenting with paper negative and prints.
lected in books was yet another reason photography was
Twenty years or so before that, Thomas Wedgewood, a Brit-
embraced as an unprecedented way to share information.
ish scientist, and Nicéphore Niépce were making earlier, less
Photographic books blossomed in the 19th century. Charles
stable photographic images, most of which are lost to us.
Darwin’s 1872 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, was one of the first scientific texts to include pho-
STEVE: And then after almost a century of photography, you
tographic illustrations. And even earlier on, when people
have a different sort of hybrid practice when someone like
were trying to understand the properties of light itself,
Karl Blossfeldt makes very precise images of a different sort.
photography became central to the study of spectronomy.
You could easily say that he was archiving plant types, and
Scientists mailed daguerreotypes of a light spectrum to one
collecting data and information. How do you see Blossfeldt,
another, from the United States to England, to share infor-
as a scientist or artist? Or are those categories not even valid?
mation and discuss the qualities of light.
MARVIN: Blossfeldt falls in the long tradition of people who
STEVE: It’s interesting that the art world embraces the
makes a certain kind of image, and lots of them, to catalogue
Bechers. When I first saw the Becher photographs, I
something. The ability to create photographic atlases and
couldn’t see them in a fine art context. When I look at the
archives, to capture multiple and idiosyncratic examples of
Becher’s work, I feel like I’m looking at an archive because
certain kinds of things, was part of what attracted the sci-
of the clinical way that the work is presented. One way
ences to photography. Instead of having to rely upon artists
work differentiates itself from the experience of looking at
and illustrators as the interpreters of the natural world for
images in an atlas or archive is when the work is presented
scientists, photography made inquiry, documentation and
and encountered as gelatin silver prints. When I’m looking
sharing of data less subjective pursuits and activities. In
at the work I have to put it into the context of conceptual
the late 19th century, explorers and archeologists published
art. And that the experience of looking at the work is the
sets and collections of images documenting the places and
experience of understanding an archive rather than nec-
native peoples they encountered. Civil War surgeons docu-
essarily the imagery itself. To me they were just as much
mented the medical procedures they performed.
architectural documenters as they are conceptual artists.
What’s interesting about Blossfeldt is that he was making
These guys are scientists as much as they are artists.
those plant pictures in the late 1920s, when photographs and science seemed to be working in tandem to shape the
MARVIN: Well, yes. In the sense that photography was re-
modern world. To study and capture something clearly, ef-
spected and valued because it didn’t necessarily interpret.
ficiently, and with precision, to archive and easily access
People often assume that what photography gives us is a
images became characteristics of the modern world. Art-
one-on-one imprint of the world. In the 19th century, it was
ists from the 1920s and 1930s, from Laszlo Moholy Nagy to
called ‘the pencil of nature,’ a way to imprint and index the
Berenice Abbott, were interested in the scientific gaze and
world in a manner that sidestepped subjectivity and would
the subjects and beauty of science. They understood that
be more accurate and useful for that accuracy. In the 1960s
images made in and of science opened a doorway; they
and 1970s when the Bechers started exhibiting their work,
not only documented phenomena and objects, but helped
it was a moment in the art and photography worlds when
shape a new visual language to engage with issues differ-
some people were turning away from more self-conscious
ent from what scientists might focus on in their work.
photographic narratives and artfulness and, once again, toward greater objectivity and clarity of vision. I think that
STEVE: In your project, you’ve been looking at the work
the conceptual nature of what they were doing not only
of Anna Atkins, for example, who was one of the first to
brought photography back into a more rigorous and sci-
use photography to document natural phenomena…
entific realm, but used it to step back and look at culture, industry, economics, politics, and power structures as well.
MARVIN: Atkins was a British botanist, and is thought
They honed a methodology that eschewed “creative” bells
to be the first woman to make a photograph. Starting in
and whistles. They made one picture after another that al-
the 1850s, she published handmade books of plant forms
lowed viewers to, in a sense, data mine the work.
illustrated with photographic images. STEVE: I heard a quote that said they don’t remember STEVE: Her photograms are massively different from
who pushed the button. Does science negate the notion
what Blossfeldt was doing.
of personality in imaging?
Clockwise from top left: Karl Blossfeldt. Allium ostrowskianum, Knoblauchpflanze, 1928. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Anna Atkins, Dichsonia arborescens (Jamaica). 1850, Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of George Hopper Fitch, B.A. 1932.; Nicephore Niepce, View from the Window at Le Gras. 1826-7. Camera Obscura, Lithography.
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MARVIN: Personality is something to keep at bay. I don’t
cesses and relationships often kept out of sight.
think scientists working with photographic imaging are
The images in Baltz’s series, “Sites of Technology”, adopt
thinking of the uniqueness or artfulness of what they’re do-
the supposed neutrality of science, the deadpan stance,
ing. They just need to get the job done. Scientists need im-
to question what’s going on. What’s wild is how some
ages to be as clear, readable, and free from that as possible.
of Baltz’s minimal images that have a colorful cheeriness that belies but can’t quite hint at the seriousness of what
STEVE: But In terms of what images look like and express,
lies beneath their eerie calm.
there’s been an undeniable and revolutionary change in photography triggered by digital photography and Pho-
STEVE: In the same sense, you have Baltz shooting a
toshop, which upended all ideas about accuracy and how
clean room that is some kind of science lab, then you
one can make or manipulate an image, that blows away
have Thomas Struth shooting another kind of science lab.
the notion of a dispassionate, mechanical eye.
Both artists looking at the laboratory. Yet, with the Baltz, I don’t get an emotional buzz until you tell me about all
MARVIN: Well, it has always been a fallacy to think that
the data underneath, its calculated chill. Whereas the
photography was, or ever really is, objective. At its best,
Struth does just the opposite. It’s vividly representing in
photography is only as objective as the current state of
the myth of Frankenstein, creating the new monster, and
photographic technology allows it to be.
tapping in a very different response.
You could, for example, see a lot but only certain things in a daguerreotype. You could see and learn something
MARVIN: This picture literally puts a face on research and
different from an x-ray. Photoshop does let people easily
what science is about. I’m fascinated by it because of the
manipulate the content of the image. But photography
way it speaks to issues like robotics and artificial intelli-
always lets you do that. Photography has never been
gence and hints at controversies about imaging’s central
absolutely accurate. Various types of films or sensors let
role in facial and object recognition, surveillance, artificial
you register certain parts of the light spectrum, but not
intelligence. The sciences promise a better world, but at
all of it. Photographic information is always malleable or
the same time deliver the tools to surveil and control the
bracketed by constraints in one sort or another. What’s
world. This is a theme we’re increasingly seeing in artists
interesting about digital imaging is how it forefronts this
work around science. And often, the work that questions
issue. Image captures are often just the first step in a pro-
sciences uses the evidential look of science, the artifacts of
cess of manipulation whose goal is to extract, recombine,
science, the methodology and visual language of science.
and alter input to heighten data. Images we see from the Hubble or Spitzer telescopes, for example, often combine
STEVE: So we have this incredible interest in science and
infrared, black and white, x-ray, and color images into a
its visual language from artists. Now that there is a vast
single one that is more readable than any of those indi-
and growing public interest in science, does that change
vidual images could be.
how scientists photograph?
STEVE: You showed me an image by Lewis Baltz that
MARVIN: Scientists use photography as a way to gather
reminds me a lot of how the Bechers looked at an image.
information, explore, and learn, but just as importantly
Personality seems to have been reduced as I’m viewing
photography is also used to promote science itself. As
this. Do you want to tell me something about how this
soon as photography was introduced, photographs were
image is made?
taken of the moon, the stars, animals, and objects, but also of scientists themselves, of their laboratories, and the
MARVIN: Baltz was well known by the mid-1970s for
product of their work. Scientists were always aware of im-
photographs that seemed topographic and dispassion-
aging as an interface between the sciences and the public.
ate: highly detailed and seemingly neutral images of
By the mid-to late 19th century, for example, science pho-
landscapes, industrial parks and the blank facades of
tography was being prominently featured at world’s fairs
buildings built or under construction. In the late 1980s
and popular expositions. Scientists began to reach out to
and early 1990s, Baltz’s attention turned to technology,
the public, crowdsourcing images in areas like meteorol-
and he started working on commissioned projects that
ogy, saying “Hey, we’re trying to understand lightning.
gave him access to corporate and governmental labora-
So, amateur photographers, send us your snapshots of ex-
tories, clean rooms, computers banks and artificial intel-
treme weather so we can use that information.” Scientific
ligence research sites. He made images in color instead
images have long been used in advertising to endorse and
of black and white, and as Thomas Struth and Trevor
suggest the efficacy of products. One example is a stylish
Paglen would do years later, made photographs of pro-
Kent cigarette ad from the late 1960s that presents a scien-
Previous spread: Louis Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple. 1839. Daguerreotype. Paris. Opposite: Thomas Struth. Simulator Head, JPL, Pasadena 2013. Lithograph of four stones. 89,0 x 69,0 cm.
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Clockwise from top left: OSIRIS wide-angle camera image taken on 13 January 2016, when the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft was 86.7 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 8.49 m/pixel. Courtesy: European Space Agency; Nigella Damascena Spinnenkopf, Karl Blossfeldt ca. 1932. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Warner Communications Inc. Purchase Fund, 1978; William Henry Fox Talbot, A Scene in a Library (plate VIII) from The Pencil of Nature, 1844–1846, salt print from paper negative, Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of George Hopper Fitch, B.A. 1932.
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Clockwise from top left: John Edward Mayall, Daguerre. 1860. Woodburytype. Yale University Art Gallery.; Bernd and Hilla Becher, Cooling Towers. 1967-84.; Bernice Abbot. A wave pattern with glass plate, 1958-61.
231
tist as a cultural figure of authority, suggesting that scien-
undeniable nature and scope of the problem. Think about
tists smoke Kents, because of their “micronite” filters, for
how prenatal images, like the ones I mentioned, are pro-
a good reason and you should too.
vocatively used in pro-life rallies around the country today.
STEVE: Science is also catching up to the modern era in
STEVE: But that’s an image being shanghaied by a politi-
that it increasingly uses photography to shrewdly pro-
cal group to make a point. Is science actively using im-
mote itself. Recently, we’ve been presented with spec-
ages to make changes?
tacular images like the recent close-ups of Pluto and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Spacecraft’s dramatic
MARVIN: NASA is a clear example of that, as it has to
images that track a comet hurtling through the sky.
raise the funding to support Mars shots and satellites speeding to the far edges of the universe. The New Hori-
MARVIN: Historically, various areas of science have
zons project recently flooded the media with spectacular
used photography to do that. I’m thinking about the
photos of Pluto, taken from 7000 miles away, by a satellite
1950s, when people were trying to promote the efficacy
that was, by the time the pictures made it to Earth, already
and marketing of the Salk vaccine. Newspapers widely
45 million miles away from Pluto. Through these images,
reproduced pictures of grade school kids with sleeves
the public shares in that sense of awe, enthusiasm, and
rolled up and smiles on their faces, lined up to get their
the consequentiality and wonders where will we go after
inoculations. Starting in the 1920s, the organization Sci-
we can’t be here? It was just reported that applications for
ence Service, a news agency like the Associated Press,
openings as astronauts are way up and, to a large extent,
was providing images and news stories to the media to
attributable to NASA images on social media.
attract public attention on the sciences. Science Service images are going to be included in a number of “SEEING
STEVE: My favorite image of the group you brought here
SCIENCE’s” components.
today that I can’t resist, and want to point out is Jerry
I spend a fair amount of time on Instagram, where I’ve
Lewis as The Nutty Professor.
followed Scott Kelly, who was on the International Space Station and posting pictures every day. I look at the pic-
MARVIN: As one component of the “SEEING SCIENCE”
tures CERN puts up with frequency. Woods Hole Insti-
project, I’ll be curating a tabloid called ‘The Scientist’ that
tute has oceanographers post pictures as they work. And
charts the ways scientists have, since photography’s in-
Figure 1 on Instagram is a guessing game that features
troduction, been represented. It will go from early, staid
photos from medical procedures.
headshots of scientists, to images where scientists are
If scientists once primarily made images for each other,
represented as wackjobs.
today images are specifically made to reach out to the
I’ve got to say that working on this project and looking
public, industry, policy makers, and the government. The
at so many photographs of and from the sciences, have
introduction of x-rays, for example, caused a sensation in
messed with my head to a certain extent. The more pictures
the 19th century and ever since then the public has been
made by and for the sciences that I look at, the more and
hooked. Look at people’s current interest in and the popu-
the bigger existential and philosophical issues they seem to
larization of sonograms and think back to when Life mag-
raise. It is one thing, I’m sure, to be making and using these
azine’s 1965 publication of Lennart Nilsson’s photographs
pictures in one’s work and as data, to prove something
of an unborn fetus, which caused a sensation. Think of the
right or wrong, useful or useless. But images grounded in
first satellite image of a hurricane in 1961, and how we
the sciences have lives beyond the sciences, because they
look at and relish pictures of storms and hurricanes today.
make visible what wasn’t visible before. They make you think about your life, your world, the universe in ways
STEVE: In regards to your project, you’ve said that scien-
you couldn’t have imagined. Now, with so many micro
tific photographs have become an active agent of scientific,
and macro level images in my head, I’ve got a better sense
political, and cultural change. What do you mean by that?
of where the stereotype of scientists as distracted people arises from. Scientists regularly see, visualize, and spatial-
MARVIN: I think that because so many of the ways we
ize things in ways that are impressive and mindboggling.
engage with the world is mediated by images – images change the way we perceive and behave in the world. On
STEVE: So artists don’t have the corner on the market of
the subject of climate change, it wasn’t until we reached a
eccentric, weird, crazy, visionaries?
tipping point, having seen so many images of glacial melt and the dying off of species, that people have sensed the
MARVIN: Maybe they never have.
Clockwise from top right: Kent advertisement, Thinks for Himself, P. Lorillard, 1969 / Courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine.; Photoshop, Macintosh II 1987 / Courtesy of Computer History Museum.; Jerry Lewis plays a hapless academic who invents a potion that temporarily transforms him into a dashing crooner and man about town in “The Nutty Professor” (1963), directed by Mr. Lewis.CreditParamount Pictures/Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.; Charles Darwin, An expression of disgust, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 1872 London: John Murray. First edition / Courtesy of Wellcome LibraryFollowing spread: THOMAS BALTZ, Element #24 from 89/91 Sites of Technology (Portfolio) 53. 232
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MUSÉE EMERGING A RTIST
Melissa Gaudet, Satellite Eyes, 2015.
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PEGGY AHWESH
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Peggy Ahwesh, Still from Recovery Drift, 2015, HD single-channel video, 2 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Microscope Gallery
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PEGGY AHWESH
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PEGGY AHWESH
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Peggy Ahwesh, Still from Recovery Drift, 2015, HD single-channel video, 2 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Microscope Gallery
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PEGGY AHWESH
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Peggy Ahwesh, Still from Recovery Drift, 2015, HD single-channel video, 2 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Microscope Gallery
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E A D W E A R D M U Y B R I D G E s tud i es i n mo ti o n
b y Me l i ssa Ma ehra
It’s 1872. The trending debate among horse-racing en-
Muybridge immersed himself in the studies of photogra-
thusiasts: Is there a moment in a horse’s trot where all
phy and printing techniques.
four hooves are off the ground? #DoHorsesFly? Famed
En vogue at the time was Frederick Scott Archer’s wet-
artist renderings reigned in on the dispute for centuries,
plate collodion process; a novel and inexpensive devel-
sketches and oils rallying a firm, albeit mixed consensus
oping technique in which negative images were rapidly
on the matter. There are depictions of one hoof on the
reproduced onto glass. The innovation required a por-
ground at all times, or all lean legs splayed in an out-
table dark room, but within fifteen minutes—viola, one
wards extension from the torso to their farthest breadth—
had prints! They were stunning images, reproduced on
yes, in gravity-defying flight.
albumen paper, which drew one’s attention to striking
As rumors are remembered, Leland Stanford, former
tonal qualities and the finest of micro-details.
California governor and estate owner of what was hailed
During his time of physical recovery and novice cre-
by some as the “horse-training mecca,” had a $25,000 wa-
ative exploration, Muybridge was greatly influenced
ger against a rival on the side of flying horses, dubbed
by British celebrity portraitist, Julia Margaret Cameron.
at the time as “unsupported transit.” Stanford commis-
He fine-tuned his execution of Frederick Scott Archer’s
sioned Eadweard Muybridge, an immigrant publishing
processing technique, and even patented inventions for a
agent turned astute technical photographer, to help settle
high-speed electrical shutter that could be used with up
the bet. The commission—a mélange of science, art and
to twenty-four cameras.
pop-controversy—would serve as a catalyzing event to
Confident in his skillset, Muybridge resumed life in San
Muybridge’s legacy in stop-motion photography and his
Francisco. His career embarked on pop-culture’s favored
role as the father of cinematography.
format of stereographs, selling works at galleries and on San
Muybridge was born April 9, 1830 in Surrey England to
Francisco’s Montgomery Street. Soon thereafter, with his
John and Susan Muggeridge, a family of grain and coal
portable dark room in tow, he refocused attentions towards
merchants. Post several permutations of his namesake,
architectural and landscape photography. He garnered
in search of remaining authentic to his English heritage,
much fame for his impressive prints of the Yosemite Valley
he settled upon Muybridge. By the age of twenty, he set
in 1967, all signed under the pseudonym Helios. These im-
out to New York as a bookseller for the London Printing
ages were captured using heavy-view cameras and stacks
and Publishing Company and even ventured west to live
of glass plate negatives. Additionally, he worked for the
in San Francisco during the height of the Gold Rush. In
U.S. government surveying the newly acquired Alaskan
1860, while en route back to his native England, Muy-
territory and its existing inhabitants—from the Tlingit Na-
bridge was involved in a tragic accident in which he was
tive Americans to Russian settlers. In 1871, Muybridge was
thrown from a moving stagecoach and sustained major
hired by the Lighthouse Board to photographically cata-
head trauma. The incident physically impacted his sense
logue lighthouses lining the West Coast. From 1870-1872,
of smell and taste, as well as greatly impaired his deci-
Muybridge began experiments with time-lapse photogra-
sion-making skills, causing erratic behavior and friction
phy, recording the construction and advancement of the
amongst those closest to him. By 1861, recouped enough
building of the San Francisco Mint Building.
to continue travels, he returned to England. He resumed
In 1872, Stanford brought the established and esteemed
treatment under the care of Sir William Gull; and, upon
Muybridge on board to settle his ongoing wager regarding
the encouragement of Gull and friend Arthur Brown,
“unsupported transit.” Muybridge embraced the project
Eadweard Muybridge. Top: Man ascending stairs. 1884-85.; bottom: Child getting up on chair, plate 475, 1887.
245
246
Eadweard Muybridge. Two men in pelvis clothes fencing, Animal Locomotion, Plate 350, 1887.
247
with the meticulous precision of scientific inquiry. Building
Muybridge had a copyright controversy and a falling out
on rudimentary exercises in time-lapse, Muybridge prelimi-
with Stanford and author Dr. J. B. D. Stillman over imag-
narily proved Stanford and his camp correct with a singular
es used for research and published in the book The Horse
negative of the race-horse Occident, with its hooves gath-
In Motion. Nonetheless, he significantly expanded on his
ered beneath the center of its torso, airborne while running.
studies in animal locomotion with the generous sponsor-
Muybridge refined his technique in motion studies by
ship of the University of Pennsylvania. While at U-Penn,
1978. Coordinating twelve cameras along Stanford’s
Muybridge had full-access to stocks of cameras, an out-
estate racetrack, he attached wires to each of the glass-
door studio, human subjects, as well as animals from the
plate cameras. A clockwork device triggered the shutter
Philadelphia Zoo. During this time, from 1883-1886, he
of each individual camera as a horse ran through the
documented a prolific 100,000 images of motion surveys.
elaborate setup. On June 5 of the same year, Sallie Gardner
Additionally, he built off of his earlier patent regarding
at A Gallop (also known as The Horse In Motion) served
high-speed electrical shutters, inventing a camera with a
as empirical evidence in favor of the unsupported tran-
faster shutter to assist him in reducing motion blur.
sit theory. The silhouetted stills were printed on a disc
Muybridge’s system was intricate, consisting of multiple
that could be viewed in animation with his invention,
strategically-placed cameras, each called to task to capture a
the zoopraxiscope. The zoopraxiscope—the “Adam” of
separate image, documenting the sequence of rudimentary
movie projectors, predating even Edison’s kinetoscope—
actions from animals—a bird in flight, an elephant’s prom-
allowed for an animated projection of still images, creat-
enade—or complex feats of athleticism from humans—a
ing the illusion of motion as glass discs rapidly rotated.
wrestling match between two near-nude men, or the grace-
248
ful movements of a woman dancing—and finally projected
Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, he un-
in animated splendor with his zoopraxiscope. His aesthetic,
veiled the Science of Animal Locomotion. This exhibit el-
whether the subject be man or beast, was to capture the nu-
evated his invention of the zoopraxiscope to a zoopraxo-
ances of action against a gridded background. In the end,
graphical hall in which the public roamed through with
the prints come across as if they were an homage to science
moving images projected on the walls alongside them.
itself: dissections of everyday observances, frozen so each
On May 8, 1904 Muybridge died of prostate cancer at a
moment could be looked on and appreciated in isolation—
cousin’s home in Kingston upon the Thames—the name
precision trumping beauty. The human eye can only per-
on his tombstone misspelled as Eadweard Maybridge. Al-
ceive but so much, however, Muybridge’s camera caught
beit a man of eccentricities, Muybridge’s mark spanned
the infinitesimal inbetweens of every gesture, of every ac-
far beyond the realms of photography and cinema, con-
tion, letting movement run its full circuit.
tributing even to contemporary understandings of bio-
By 1887, Muybridge published a compendium of 20,000
mechanics and serving as a valuable point of reference
images taken from 781 glass plates titled Animal Loco-
across disciplines. From harnessing the scientific method
motion: An Electrophotographic Investigation of Connective
and applying the precision and flare of experimentation
Phases of Animal Movements. Having reestablished his
to his world of photography, Muybridge proved to us
credibility, he lectured globally. During a speech at the
that pictures can move and horses can fly.
Eadweard Muybridge. Nude Woman Kicking a Hat, Animal Locomotion, 1887.
249
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Eadweard Muybridge. The Galloping Horse Portfolio, 1887.
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MUSÉE A RTIST BIOGRAPHIES
ADAM BROOMBERG was born in 1970 in Johan-
in Florence, Italy, working as a technical director
nesburg, South Africa. OLIVER CHANARIN in 1971
of production for Art/Tapes/22, one of the first
in London. The pair has an accomplished list of solo
video art studios in Europe. Throughout his career,
exhibitions including Shanghai Biennale (2014), Mu-
Viola has immersed himself in various cultures,
seum of Modern Art, New York (2014), and the Tate
religions, and philosophies: traveling to the Solo-
Britain (2014). Two of their most notable pieces are the
mon Islands, Java, Bali, and Japan he studied and
Holy Bible and War Primer 2. The first won the ICP In-
documented traditional performing arts, and to the
finity Award (2014) and the second won the Deutsche
Sahara desert, Tunisia to study mirages. The fol-
Börse Photography Prize (2013). They founded their
lowing year he studied Zen Buddhism with Master
own publishing company called Chopped Liver Press
Daien Tanaka in Japan, and in 1981 emigrated back
which releases limited edition books and posters; the
to Long Beach, California, commencing artworks
latter being unique, signed copies. Printed matter is a
based on medical imaging technologies of the hu-
pervasive element within the work of this artist-team.
man body at a local hospital, animal consciousness at the San Diego Zoo, and fire walking rituals
ADAM FUSS was born in London in 1961 and moved
among the Hindu communities in Fiji. In 1987, he
to New York in 1982, where he now lives and works.
traveled throughout the American Southwest pho-
After the success of his first solo exhibition in 1985,
tographing Native American rock-art sites, and re-
Fuss’s work has received critical acclaim from around
cording nocturnal desert landscapes. More recent-
the world. His work often highlights the themes of
ly, at the end of 2005, Viola and his family traveled
life, death, and the supernatural. The 2010 series
to Dharamsala, India to record a prayer blessing
called Home and the World consists of gelatin silver
with the Dalai Lama. In 2014, twenty works were
print photograms and large-scale daguerreotypes.
shown at the Grand Palais, Paris, in his largest sur-
The works within the series record groupings of live
vey exhibition to date, and a few months later, part
snakes on stained mattresses and a close up of a vagi-
one of the St. Paul’s commission was installed in
na. He has displayed his work extensively throughout
the London cathedral, “Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire,
his career, and has done numerous solo shows, as well
Water).” Viola has received numerous awards for
as collaborations with other artists in group shows.
his achievements, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, XXI Catalonia International
BILL VIOLA has played an important role in es-
Prize, and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan
tablishing video as an essential form of modern
Art Association.
art, augmenting its range in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. Bill Viola received
Photographer and inventor EADWEARD MUY-
his BFA in Experimental Studios from Syracuse
BRIDGE was born in the United Kingdom in 1830.
University in 1973. Throughout the 90s, Viola lived
He immigrated to the United States at age 20, where
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MUSÉE A RTIST BIOGRAPHIES
he became well-regarded for his natural images
LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON was born in Cleveland,
of the Yosemite Valley and Alaska. The subjects of
Ohio, where her father had moved from Montreal.
Muybridge’s work changed dramatically after meet-
She received a Bachelor’s degree in Education, Mu-
ing former California governor Leland Stanford.
seum Administration and Fine Arts from Case West-
Stanford sought out Muybridge to help him prove
ern Reserve University in Cleveland in 1963 and a
his theory that all four of a horse’s hooves leave the
Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco State Univer-
ground mid-gallop. Stanford then took thousands of
sity in 1972. Over the course of the last thirty years,
photographs of horses in motion. He began devel-
Hershman Leeson has been praised by critics around
oping more advanced methods of photographing
the world for her groundbreaking uses for technol-
animals and people in motion, and was consequently
ogy and for her work that drew attention to the top-
invited to further develop his research at the Univer-
ics that are essential to understanding our society. It
sity of Pennsylvania in 1883. His research culminated
wasn’t until the late 1970s that Hershman Leeson be-
into a projection method known as the Zoopraxis-
gan to work in the video medium, which she would
cope. Muybridge inspired the artists and inventors
then use to further her exploration of the themes of
of his time – including Thomas Edison – and his tech-
identity, surveillance, and technology. In 2004, she
nology continues to impact how we capture images
was named “the most influential woman working in
in motion today.
New Media.” Her work is featured in many public collections. Including, Museum of Modern Art, The
Artist and photographer FABIAN OEFNER was born
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Na-
in Switzerland, where he resides to this day. He at-
tional Gallery of Canada.
tended the Basel University of Art, where he studied painting, photography, typography, and art history. He later received his Bachelor of Arts in Product De-
HOLLY SHAFTEL is the Editorial Assistant and Social Media Specialist at NASA’S Jet Propulsion Lab-
sign at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
oratory. LAURA TENENBAUM is a member of the
His Disintegrating series (2013) is comprised of im-
Earth Science Communications Team at NASA’s Jet
ages of revved-up cars that appear to be disassem-
Propulsion Laboratory. Both Shaftel and Tenenbaum
bled mid-explosion. Oefner’s Black Hole (2013) se-
are responsible for culling and creating content for
ries became the center of attention at the 2015 World
NASA’S Climate Change website. Additionally, Shaf-
Science Festival Gala, where people came to cel-
tel and Tenenbaum are both Webby Award winners
ebrate the 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of
for their work at NASA-JPL. KIMBERLY KOWAL AR-
Relativity. Oefner’s most recent piece, Field of Sound
CAND is the Visualization Lead for NASA’S Chandra
(2015), can be interpreted as an animated sculpture
X-ray Observatory based in Cambridge, Massachu-
using more than five thousand Plexiglas blades, il-
setts. She has won several awards as a producer and
luminated by the sound of a piano.
director with NASA and the Smithsonian.
253
MUSÉE A RTIST BIOGRAPHIES
MARVIN HEIFERMAN, an independent curator and
currently displaying a solo exhibition, “Everything and
writer, organizes projects about photography and visual
More” at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New
culture for institutions that include the Museum of Mod-
York. The ultimate goal of the film is to suck the audience
ern Art, Smithsonian Institution, International Center of
into the astronaut’s life, forcing them to feel everything
Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, Carne-
the astronaut felt during his haunting experience. Some
gie Museum of Art, and the New Museum. Earlier in his
of her former exhibits are “Palisades” at the Serpentine
career, as a gallerist and artist representative, Heiferman
Sackler Gallery in London in 2015, “Interiors” at Castello
worked closely with many artists and photographers
di Rivoli in Turin in 2015, and an upcoming exhibition at
including: Robert Adams, Eve Arnold, Lewis Baltz, Nan
The Aspen Art Museum in 2016. Rose won the Illy Pres-
Goldin, Peter Hujar, and Richard Prince, among others.
ent Future Prize at Artissima in 2014, and in the spring
Heiferman has written for numerous museums, galleries,
of 2015, she accepted the Frieze Artist Award for site-
publications, catalogs, blogs, and magazines including
specific art work by rising artists.
The New York Times, Gagosian Gallery, CNN, Artforum, Design Observer, Aperture, Art in America, and BOMB.
ROBERT LONGO is known for his lifelike illustrations
Heiferman is the author, editor, and packager of over
that analyze the politics and plays of power in our so-
two dozen books on photography and visual culture,
ciety. Inspired by sculpture, his drawings look three di-
including Photography Changes Everything (Aperture,
mensional, as if they could leap off the page and assume
2012). He is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Art, De-
physical form. Longo attended Buffalo State University,
sign & Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore
where he studied along with fellow-student Cindy Sher-
County; core faculty member in the ICP/Bard College
man. He graduated in 1975, and moved his residence
MFA Program in Advanced Photographic Studies; and
to New York City becoming a part of the downtown
on the faculty of the School of Visual Art’s MFA Program
music and art scene. He became famous for his Men in
in Photography, Video and Related Media. New entries
the Cities (1979) series, which is a portrayal of business
to Why We Look, Heiferman’s ongoing Twitter and Face-
men and women squirming in either pain or euphoria,
book based project, tracking breaking news stories about
silhouetted against a stark white background. The idea
imaging and visual culture, are posted daily.
for this work came from a still image in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film The American Soldier (1970). In 2000
RACHEL ROSE’S hypnotic videos deal with the theme
and 2003, Longo presented Monsters, Bernini-esque ren-
of mortality. They include settings ranging from zoos
derings of massive breaking waves, and The Sickness
and a robotics perception lab, to Philip Johnson’s Glass
of Reason, baroque renderings of atomic bomb blasts.
House, the American Revolutionary War and 19th cen-
Monsters was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
tury park design. Her work anchors these sites in a range of perspectives on death, from human weaknesses to the
SHAMUS CLISSET was born in Huntington, NY in
devastation historical events have in our lifetime. She is
1976 and received his BFA in painting at the College of
254
MUSÉE A RTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Santa Fe. Clisset’s work pairs 3D modeling software
Director of the Synthetic Biological Systems Laboratory
with ray-tracing. By doing so, Clisset constructs land-
at Columbia University. His work explores biology and
scapes, creatures, and objects, creating an alternate re-
engineering, and intends to build a significant under-
ality for them to inhabit, including his alter ego, Fake
standing of gene circuits to design biological behaviors
Shamus. This world is magical, in both its appearance
that have technological applications. Outside of the
and when considering the tools that make its existence
laboratory, Danino is a TED Fellow, and continues to
possible. He currently lives and works in New York.
focus on the development of bio-art works.
Living and working between the Hamptons and New
VIK MUNIZ was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1961, and
York since the 1970s, STEVE MILLER is best known for
splits his time between Brooklyn, New York and Rio de
his paintings, which combine aspects of art, science,
Janeiro, Brazil. His images range from photographs to
and technology. He was trained by silkscreen printers
installations, and he is most known for using a myriad
who worked with Andy Warhol, and is inspired by
of materials to create them, such as chocolate, toys, and
artists like Robert Rauschenberg who boldly mixed im-
garbage. Muniz’s artwork often draws inspiration from
agery in his work, Miller’s photographs and paintings
other artists, which he then replicates into new forms.
are uniquely wrought examinations of the systems that
He was featured in the Academy Award nominated
constitute our world. He was an early pioneer of the
documentary film Waste Land, which follows his work
Sci-Art movement and major projects include a multi-
over the course of two years in relation to garbage pick-
media computer installation, which analyzed financial
ers at a garbage dump near Rio de Janeiro. Muniz shot
commodity trading and the distribution of contempo-
exclusive new iPhone images with the Schneider Op-
rary art exhibited at White Columns Gallery in 1981.
tics iPro Lens for Musée’s ‘Breaking Tradition’ issue.
His most recent series, Health of the Planet (2009-14), is x-ray photographs of Amazonian flora and fauna, and
WIM DELVOYE grew up in Wervik, a small town in
was exhibited in 2013 at the Oi Futuro Ipanema in Bra-
West Flanders, Belgium. The mixed media artist is
zil. This series has also been shown in solo exhibitions
recognized for his provocative depiction of the hu-
in Rio de Janeiro at Galeria Tempo, in Switzerland at
man body, complex work method, and an artistry
Galeria Rigassi, in London at Gallery Maya, and in East
that blends humor with the eccentric. Delvoye has
Hampton, New York, at Harper’s Books.
put his work on display at multiple exhibitions, including Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow,
Hailing from Los Angeles, artist TAL DANINO received
Jing’An Sculpture Park, Shanghai, Centre Pompidou,
B.S. degrees in Physics, Math, and Chemistry from
Paris, Museum of Arts & Design, New York, Stedelijk
UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UCSD. He
Museum, Amsterdam, Louvre Museum, Paris, Musee
carried out his postdoctoral research at the Koch Insti-
Rodin, Paris, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, and Peggy
tute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and is the
Guggenheim Collection, Venice, among many others.
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SPECIAL THANKS TO STEVE MILLER NASA ROBERT LASKIN SHAHID & COMPANY & THE MUSÉ E TEAM
SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO MUSÉE NO. 15: PLACE 1. Submit high resolution images. 2. Please do not include watermarks. 3. Use ‘Issue No. 15’ as the email subject. 4. Include name, photo title and contact information that you would like to see published. 5. Deadline for submission is JUNE 1, 2016. 6. To submit, please visit www.museemagazine.com or send your work to submit@museemagazine.com.
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