museum responses

MOMA- New Photography 2009

An exhibition that is supposed to highlight significant recent photographic work that pushes our definition of the medium only leaves the viewer wondering what it is they were supposed to even be looking at. The confusion begins upon entering the photographic area. You are filtered more naturally into the permanent collection and after looking at the beautiful silver prints of the masters that line the walls, you enter into a huge, open room that holds the giant prints of the six new photographers. In contrast with everything you have just seen, majority of the images appear to be trying to hard. They manipulate the medium with photo collages and photoshop, much of which feel unoriginal and outdated. The intention seems to be challeneging the idea of what is photography- could it be more than just an image captured, or even an image with conventional photographic manipulation? The works of Sterling Ruby and Sara VanDerBeek are both done in digital collage aesthetics which are reminscent of computer programming when it was first being used. Compositionally, they are messy and uninteresting. The only artist whose work I was really drawn to was that of Leslie Hewitt who challenges our ideas of perception and what we read as truth in a photograph. Using old snapshots she contexualizes them into a specific enviornement so that the banality in the picture transcends that of the new photograph. By creating contradictory view points, the viewer is challenged with what they shoud be looking at and how they look at it.

ICP- Dress Codes Triennial

The third ICP Triennial offers a variety of contemporary video and photographic artists to have their work shown together. All of the pieces speak towards ideas of fashion and identity. Curatorial, there are many gems in the show. Cindy Sherman's new work feels as seamless as all of her other work. A constant evolution of the way we see ourselves and as she grows, so do her characters. Middle-age women fight for the eye of the camera and seek to be

seen. Despite trying to stand out, they all are eerily reminscent of one another not only in Sherman's eyes, but in their matching print clothes and overinflated lips. Another piece I was particularly drawn to was that of Swedish artist, Nathalie Djurberg. Known for her shocking and controversial claymation videos, Djurberg did not disappoint with her piece entitled New Movements in Fashion which follows a group of five models as they change clothing and attitudes in front of a demanding photographer. The power dynamics and alliances are as constantly shifting as their wardrobe and I felt like I was watching middle school girls who inhabited the bodies of these beautiful, amazonian women. Her work delves into how horrible human nature can be and by creating caricatures allows the viewer to process her ideas in a medium that is reminiscent of childhood. The rest of the artists show beautiful work but it becomes to overwhelming in a space like ICP. There should have been less work shown and the point would have still come across as every artist is in the most basic way saying the same thing.

The Met- Robert Frank

Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the groundbreaking book, The Americans, the Met has created an extensive exhibition that among other things, holds a print of every page in the original book in its correct sequencing. Set up with contact sheets, work prints, earlier photographs, and letters, the show creates a world for the viewer, it creates a way to see things the way Frank would have seen them. All of the prints are beautiful and I enjoyed reading the anecdotes. The way the images hang on the walls allows them to adopt a cinematic feel. They move fluidly and you are led gently through images of racial and class discrimination, poverty, and a culture obsessed with glamour and fame. Frequent imagery of windows and cars creates the sensation that we are looking for ourselves and with the way Frank photographed, it feels like we are seeing our own image for the first time. The book, originally met with poor reviews has become so iconic that it would have been hard for the Met to mess it up.