Tim Sullivan Causes a Blackout
Dickerman artist-in-residence Tim Sullivan has reversed the world of exposure in the most interesting and unusual way.
Using black lights (no glow here, actual blackened lights, friends), Tim paints the objects of his still lives in their opposing hues. Then he photographs his carefully-constructed scenes, and reverses the color image.
The result? A world where light shines black, and shadows are a luminous white.
Here’s a description of the photography Tim will be sharing in his upcoming show:
(via Steven Wolf Fine Art website)
“Using cheap tricks, bad puns and a perverted color spectrum, Tim Sullivan bathes a new body of photos and sculpture in a playful, malignant darkness. Commonplace images from advertising and some of the artist’s treasured objects of nostalgia are rendered uncanny by this complex nocturne.
Darkness and light are nothing more than digital constructs in this black-lit parallel world. While some may shrivel in the tenebra of this 24-hour punk rock basement, Sullivan lounges in it like a vampire. And when he rises and waves his scepter, darkness becomes visible.”
Here’s quick cell phone shot of Tim’s blackened lightbulbs. Each of these has been flocked, to appear as if the blackness, or hue is the kind of “light” that illuminates his subjects.
Anastasia Kuba on the Trainlines of Russia
One of our newest artists-in-residence, Anastasia Kuba is fascinated by the inner life of Russian trains. Motivated in part by the forbidden nature of photographing on the trains, Anastasia familiarizes herself with the workers around her, angling for portraits of her subjects in context.
Kim Sikora: Can you talk a little bit about your series “People of the Road”?
Anastasia Kuba: At the moment rail road is still the most popular way to travel from the city to a city. (The) rail Road is like circulatory system of gigantic country.
I will be travelling through Russia by train from West to East making multiple stops in different cities. My main focus will be train attendants. Russian train attendants are known to have a very tough exterior, but at the same time to be very soulful. I am interested in learning what is behind that mask of an inapproachable person. I want to know what their life is like, who they are, what their day consists of, what do they see outside of the train window.
I was looking through different forums to find how international travelers see Russian train attendants. This was my favorite:
“Everyone who’s been doing a trip by train while in Russia knows what I’m talking about. These almost mythical stern people treating their cars like their own children, vacuum cleaning it at least twice a day, keeping their passengers in check … And lest you open the window….”
KS: When you are shooting in the trains, are you seeking out specific subjects or details to include?
AK: I am photographing everything/everyone that catches my eye. I think about what to include/ what to not include later when editing.
KS: How does this series relate to your past work?
AK: Vulnerability and strength has been the main focus of my work and it is a main theme of this project.
KS: How did you create the concept for this series?
AK: One of the times I went back to Russia to visit my family and took a train from Moscow to Voronezh I met a train attendant who captivated me with her personality. I remember a moment when an impatient child asked her when is train going to stop. She answered him nicely and then spoke to herself while looking at the window: “When is the train is going to stop… all my life I am asking myself this question”. I just couldn’t forget her. She was so soulful, authentic…
KS: Given the obstacles that most of us face as artists, it can be a struggle to make the time and space to create new work. How do you balance your personal and professional time?
AK: I think I am extremely lucky. I am professional photographer/ artist. Photography is my work, hobby, passion and lifestyle.
KS: Each of your subjects looks they hold a number of stories within them. Are there any stories from your experience with them you’d like to share?
AK: The lady on the very first photograph shared a car with me on the train from Moscow to Voronezh. Her name is Nusha. She was the first person I photographed for that project. Nusha was on her way home from visiting her son who just had a new born grandchild. She has 7 children. When she was 32 and her youngest child was 3 month old her husband passed away…
KS: You are beginning to plan your continuation of this project in Russia. Can you tell us more about your timeframe for your trip? How do you plan to fund it?
AK: I am planning on going in August and travelling till mid December, because am interested in showing the rail road life through a change of seasons. Everyone who took a train in Russia once was very excited tohearr about this project. I am launching my kickstarter compain June 1st and I hope that people support me iin my wish to learn and to tell stories of Russian train attendants and all people who’s life is tied o Russian Rail Road.
Stay tuned for the inclusion of Anastasia’s work in the next residency show.
Ana Vega’s Decisive Imagery
Ana Vega’s photography exists at the intersection of engineered fiction and bare reality. Ana is one of our newest photographers in the Residency Program here at the lab, and will be exhibiting images from this body of work in an event at ABCo Artspace in Oakland this upcoming weekend.
Don’t miss the opening, this Saturday April 20, 6pm at 3135 Filbert St in Oakland.
Ana says, “The act of photographing represents a series of decisions and actions, and my work investigates the protocols of the look, of visual perception. I strive to offer images that, despite their realistic qualities, provoke a hesitation as to how to understand them.”
Kim Sikora: Can you talk a little bit about your series? How did you create the concept?
Ana Vega: Her eyelashes rise and fall like a theatre curtain is the trio of images that I worked on while in residency at Dickerman. I was working with silicone, pigmenting it and then pouring it. I wanted to make tongues that would come out of a picture. I then worked with them in the studio with a neutral backdrop to make these images. The process became close to painting, applying color to a surface, red puddles on a flat grey. The images appear in a degree zero as face expressions, moods, postures. Between extreme abstraction and immediate facial recognition.
The images for Her eyelashes rise and fall like a theatre curtain are a parade of an eyelash’s calculated
palpitations, in postures of seduction. Sticking out tongues pouting lusciously, showing their make-up and apparent retouches, like lipstick marks/tracks. The idea of mutual desire with images. “Pictures want to be kissed. And of course we want to kiss them back.”
There is the pleasure of distortion; when the photograph arrives on my screen, the primary mood isn’t the same any more, it’s ready to change. I can knead it and put on a different face, the face I want to show. There is a temporality that is specific to the photographic medium, that is dismantled in stages. It shows through as a being that is always malleable, at each step of production, in it’s own way.
KS: A lot of your images are very clean and spare. Can you describe some of your aesthetic choices in
this vein?
AV: The studio space has an essential role in my images, it is this place where I can bring an object and isolate it – from its context, from its relationships to the world, to us in a certain way – and create fiction… Its a blank. The spareness that you are referring to comes from the will of a specific focus. As portraits of sorts, the subject is placed in plain view. I put my subjects through auditions, and as characters they may play several different roles, or re-appear in different contexts or scenes.
KS: How has your imagery changed in the past few years?
AV: It’s actually changing now, again. My work has always been interested in the aesthetics of advertising, and its static feel. Without leaving that arena, but as a departure towards something more sensual, my imagery is now looking for a more formless or anonymous shape.
KS: For this project, you’ve been in many different locations, LA, SF, and Paris. Do you see any trends
in the local photography scene? How would you compare this to other cities you’ve lived and created in?
AV: I came to California because I’ve been interested for the past couple of years in a young scene of
photographers that was bubbling up in a very influencial way for me – Elad Lassry, Sam Falls, Lukas Blalock, Michele Abeless… Annette Kelm, in Germany..
Southern California gave me something more, something else, difficult to describe. The landscape and cityscape, Peter Shire (and the Memphis Studios)… but it’s not only that. I like this quote from Don Draper, talking about love, “What’s the difference between a husband knocking on a door and a sailor getting off a ship? About ten thousand volts.” Los Angeles is the antinomy of Paris. And yet, loving Paris, it comes so naturally to fall in love with LA. They have this kind of relationship of extreme desire, telling each other “don´t change a thing.”
KS: Is there a new project you’re working on you’d like to tell us about?
AV: A couple of projects are upcoming, a collective show at the 104 in Paris this September. And I’ll be back in California for a duo-show with Gina Osterloh, a great photographer that I met in LA, at Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles in September 2014.
City Life Without the Light
Thierry Cohen wants us to see the connections with nature we’re missing every day. (Or those of us who live in big cities).
Social Media Workshop Recap
For those of you who missed last night’s workshop, here are some of the highlights from presenters Scott James andAndrew Lawrence. You can find the full presentation here.
SCOTT JAMES ON SOCIAL MEDIA STATEGIES
“No one can care until they know.”
Regardless of your strategy, number of social networks, or future plans to post, your followers and fans cannot be invested in your work without an abundance of information out there. Share your work!
Looking Up
Seth gave me a tip about this fascinating Nasa-run blog, Astonomy Picture of the Day. Take a look at this stunning image from earlier last week:
The Cygnus Wall of Star Formation
Credit & Copyright: Nick Pavelchak
Explanation: The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North America continent on Earth cannot — form stars. Specifically, in analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright part that appears as Central America and Mexico is actually a hot bed of gas, dust, and newly formed stars known as the Cygnus Wall. The above image shows the star forming wall lit and eroded by bright young stars, and partly hidden by the dark dust they have created. The part of the North America nebula (NGC 7000) shown spans about 15 light years and lies about 1,500 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).
Here’s the link for your daily dose of what’s out there.
Beth Yarnelle Edwards: “Suburban Dreams” at OMCA
Beth Yarnelle Edwards is the second photographer to be awarded a solo show for the new California Photography exhibition series.
Beth’s series began in 1997 as she started shooting the intimacies and intricacies of family life in Silicon Valley. Her images, though posed, reflect intriguing and everyday truths about her subjects.
Beth’s images often incorporate the feeling of iconic portrait subjects. In her own words, “I have these icons in my thinking process, but when it all comes together, it’s magic.”
“Suburban Dreams” was recently featured in San Francisco Magazine, as shown above, and in the Oakland Tribune
To see more of Beth’s work, check out her site.
“Underwater” with 81 Bees Photo Collective
Wednesday, November 14th, we are hosting an exhibition by local photo collective 81 Bees. “Underwater” is a sister show to the exhibition on view at PhotoBooth, the Mission-based tintype studio, photography vendor, gallery, and all-around photo nerd watering hole. Here’s our interview with two 81Bees photographers.
Kim Sikora: 81 Bees seems to encompass a wide expanse of photographers. Some with a commercial practice, some in other photography-related positions… Can you explain how the collective was originally formed?
81 Bees photographer Clare Coppel: 81Bees Collective formed in June of 2008. 81Bees is made up of students from City College’s Advanced Black & White Darkroom Class and more people have joined over time.
81 Bees photographer Bob Nishihira: The advanced black and white class at CCSF is called Photo 81B. Four years ago, a number of students from that class decided to form the 81 Bees Collective soon after the semester had ended.
KS: How do you handle membership? Does your group continually grow, or are you interested in more consistent, long-term members?
81B CC: Our group is always changing and adding people. Some participate more than others, it’s very open ended.
81B BN: At first the only members were from the original class. Later, subsequent “graduates” from Photo 81B joined. Eventually, any CCSF photo student could join, usually by invitation. There is no membership cap at this time.
KS: As a group, what are your goals?
81B CC: Our goals are to create photography, share ideas and socialize. Sharing ideas is a big part of the creative process and for effective work flow. Not everyone is good at everything, but everyone is good at something. Each person is their own individual artist, with a collective there is community aspect that is really valuable and fun. Have other people to depend on and depending on you can be very motivational.
81B BN: Our goals are to have fellowship with other photography lovers, to share ideas, to advance photo skills, and to receive recognition for our photography.
KS: Is there any desire for unity of vision across the collective? Why or why not?
81B CC: We like the variety, yet we do many things together.
81B BN: We actually like the variety of work within our group. When we have a show, not everyone will enter photos. Some will decide that it isn’t compatible with their style or interest. The group’s variety encourages each one to explore new directions.
KS: Thinking about your work within the context of the collective, what are your thoughts on individual artistic vision vs. the group’s artistic identity?
81B CC: I think everyone has their own vision 1st and then we find common ground with in the group. It’s a balancing act because anytime one works with groups of people the group becomes its own entity, however each person is an individual and has different ideas to consider.
81B BN: The group identity is not content driven. Technical skill and professional presentation are the common threads that bind the collective’s identity. This loose group identity allows each individual to travel his/her own path of creativity without constraints.
KS: In your opinion, what’s the strongest argument for joining or forming an art collective?
81B CC: The chance to share ideas, inspire and network. Also food. Food is very important to us.
81B BN: The art collective motivates one to create, to produce. (Two heads are better than one, three better than two, etc.)
KS: In your involvement in 81 Bees, hat has your biggest success been?
81B CC: Maintaining the group over 4 years. The group communicates online. There are sometimes a lot of emails to keep up with. One great thing about a collective is that different areas of responsibility are taken care of by different people. It takes a village… A lot of coordinating is us reaching a time based goal together everyone is pretty self motivated.
81B BN: Gaining and maintaining friendships.
Stop by for the opening exhibition Wednesday November 14th, from 7-830pm. And keep an eye out for future shows and a possible photography book from 81 Bees photo collective.
A few member websites:
Yelena Zhavoronkova
Susanna Troxler
Bob Nishihira