Aperture Remix @Aperture

JTF (just the facts): A group show consisting of 8 individual photographers and 1 artistic pair who were asked to make new work inspired by an Aperture publication. The exhibit is divided into 9 sections, with each section containing the new works, a sample of the works which made up the original book/magazine, and a limited edition book combining the old and new. The exhibit was curated by Lesley Martin. (Installation shots at right.)

 

The following photographers have been included in the show, with their chosen influential publication as reference. The details on the works on view made by both the commissioned artists and the subjects are underneath.

 

Rinko Kawauchi: Sally Mann, Immediate Family, 1992

• Mann: 5 gelatin silver prints, 1984-1989
• Kawauchi: 6 c prints, 2012
• Case with Kawauchi's limited edition book

Vik Muniz: Edward Weston, Daybooks, Volume 1, Mexico, 1973

• Weston: 3 gelatin silver prints, 1921-1924
• Muniz: 1 digital gelatin silver print, 2012, 1 copy of Daybooks cut up

Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, Aperture essay books, 1976-2011

• Onorato/Krebs: 1 camera made from a dozen cut through books, 1 archival pigment print

Martin Parr: Aperture issue 103, 1986

• Nan Goldin: 2 cibachrome prints, 1977-1980
• Chris Killip: 2 gelatin silver prints, 1983-1984
• Larry Sultan: 2 digital c prints, 1984
• Parr: 3 digital c prints, 1990-2001
• Case with Parr's limited edition book

Doug Rickard: Stephen Shore, Uncommon Places, 1982

• Shore: 1 set of postcards, 1971-2000, 5 chromogenic prints, 1973-1975
• Rickard: 8 archival pigment pigment prints, 1971-1978/2012
• Case with Rickard's limited edition book

Viviane Sassen: Edward Weston, Nudes, 1977

• Weston: 3 gelatin silver prints, 1 palladium print, 1927-1936
• Sassen: 5 archival pigment prints, 2003
• Case with Sassen's limited edition book

Alec Soth: Robert Adams, Summer Nights, 1985

• Adams: 4 gelatin silver prints, 1975-1980
• Soth: 1 video
• Case with letters and Soth's limited edition book

Penelope Umbrico: Masters of Photography series, 1977-1999

• Group of source images: 2 Henri Cartier-Bresson gelatin silver prints, 1948 and 1964, 1 Wynn Bullock gelatin silver print, 1958, 2 Manuel Alvarez Bravo gelatin silver prints, 1966 and 1967, 1 Edward Weston gelatin silver print, 1935, 1 Alfred Stieglitz gelatin silver print, Eikoh Hosoe gelatin silver print, 1996, 1 Paul Strand gelatin silver print, plus other reproductions
• Umbrico: 87 iPhone images, manipulated by apps, hung as a single cluster
• Case with Umbrico's limited edition book and stack of original Masters of Photography series books

James Welling: Paul Strand, Time in New England, 1980

• Strand: 6 gelatin silver prints, 1928-1946
• Welling: 22 archival pigment prints, 1 diptych, and 3 texts, 2012
• Case with Welling's limited edition book

Comments/Context: In honor of its 60th anniversary this year, Aperture might have easily trotted out a luscious parade of past masters and iconic photobooks, in a deservedly congratulatory and self-referential manner given the publisher's important position in the history of the medium. But the overly obvious greatest hits show has been smartly avoided and instead recast by asking ten contemporary photographers to make fresh works (and books) in reference/homage to any one of Aperture's many publications. The idea of exploring how a contemporary artist borrows and incorporates ideas from other artists is not a new one, of course, but in our age of image explosion and remixed culture, one that seems ever more relevant. Where is the line between responding and appropriating, riffing and reworking, entirely reformulating and just being derivative? The works in this show examine this process, opening a dialogue between past and present, asking and answering thorny questions about the nature of influence and interpretation across the photographic generations.

 

Edward Weston provides the starting point for two of the photographers included. Viviane Sassen has made deceptive pink toned nudes in reference to Weston's iconic almost abstract creations, starting with a similar interest in the lines of the human form, but extending it in her own way into multi-body nudes that have a mysterious selection of extra limbs. Her images are both seductive and sculptural like Weston, but startlingly disconcerting and unexpected. Vik Muniz has also channeled Weston, immersing himself in the Daybooks and building one of his signature constructions out of text fragments from the book and other Weston imagery. His rework of Weston's elegant portrait of Tina Modotti holding a white iris is both reverential and also uniquely Muniz.

 

Alec Soth's homage to Robert Adams' Summer Nights is fascinating near failure. After backtracking from night photography to experimenting with his new camera's video function, Soth opted for still video clips of trees and their shadows, strip malls at twilight, and houses with lights in the windows; my first reaction was that it was all a little too literal for me, and not quite enough of Soth's own vision coming through. But then I stopped looking and started listening more actively: the rustling of the trees, the background noise of a town, the settling down for the night, all captured (perhaps inadvertently) by the video. It's an amazingly perfect soundtrack of summer nights, achingly evocative of Adams' own photographs.

 

Other pairings are equally clever  and thoughtful. Rinko Kawauchi reconsiders Sally Mann's images of her children, with her own ephemeral, atmospheric shots of kids: boys swimming, a splash of water, a baby behind a curtain, the soft sunlight streaming down behind a young girl. Penelope Umbrico dives into images of mountains made masters of the medium, and then reworks them using her iPhone, creating a candy colored array of the very same mountains, somehow made less imposing by tints, tiling, and reorientations. And Doug Rickard parrots Stephen Shore's own postcard idea back at him, discovering his own 1970s era postcards of motels, cars, and restaurants, and then further tuning them to accent the saturated yellow palette of the times; they're a smart homage, using Rickard's own affinity for found imagery.

 

What I like best about this show is its sense of honoring without fawning, of acknowledging influence while still staying true to original thinking. If all of our remixed, reshuffled, chopped, and appropriated digital art of the future is as shrewd as most of what is on view here, we need not ever fear that photography is somehow over.

 

Collector's POV: One of the consistently puzzling things about this venue is that it is always a challenge to figure out what is actually for sale. For the most part, this is a non-selling environment more like a museum, so there is hardly ever an easily accessible checklist with ready price information and image details. What is perplexing about this approach is that often at least some of the works are really for sale or there are additional prints available in the print room, so it usually takes some initiative to get the answers. In the case of this particular show, it is not at all clear whether any of the photographs are available for purchase. My assumption is that at a minimum the limited edition collaborative books are for sale, but I didn't surface any prices, so interested collectors will need to follow up directly with Aperture or potentially with the various galleries that represent the artists.

 

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

 

Transit Hub: 

• Features/Reviews: CNN (here), Capital NewYork (here), New Yorker PhotoBooth (here), Time LightBox (here)

Aperture Remix

Through November 17th

 

Aperture Gallery

547 West 27th Street

New York, NY 10001

Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance @Hermes

JTF (just the facts): A total of 15 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the atrium gallery space at the top of the store. All of the works are chromogenic prints made between 2009 and 2011. The prints on display are square format, each 40x40; no edition information was available. A monograph of this body of work is forthcoming from Aperture (here). (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Every time I see Rinko Kawauchi's work, I am reminded that photography has not lost its ability to capture the pure unadulterated wonder of the world around us. Her images of seemingly mundane objects and fleeting moments are radical in their effortless simplicity and genuine freshness, her optimistic curiosity discovering child-like interest in things most of us would pass by without a second glance. Her shows have the effect of stripping away jadedness and cynicism, taking us back to a view of the world that is more naturally engaged and actively inquisitive.

What I like about this newest selection of images is that they have been edited with much tighter hand, making the whole much more thematically coherent than previous shows I've seen, which have tended to wander with more randomness from subject to subject. Virtually all the pictures on view turn on their use of light. What might seem like a ridiculously overused photographic construct actually works here, as the images sparkle with flashes and beams of immaculate whiteness, on surfaces, in the air, and through the frame. Kawauchi's light glistens through watery mist, glances off of a scooter side mirror, stripes a sidewalk, gets lost in the smoke of fireworks, slips through the forest, and passes through a transparent bubble. She jumps from the immensity of a solar eclipse to the minuteness of a tiny frog perched on a thumb, touching the tenderness of a dead swallow and the poetry of a swirling sea in between.

Regardless of her subject, Kawauchi never seems to lose sight of delicacy and openness. At first, a blast of flash against an ordinary pink rose at night seems harsh and amateurish; look again and it has a quiet haze that is quite remarkable. Even shots that might be mistaken for stock photography are somehow infused with her life affirming attention; it's like we are being taught to see all over again. Kawauchi's work doesn't fit into any neat categories or curatorial frameworks; hers is an authentically original vision, and this well chosen small show is evidence of the power of an alternate viewpoint.

Collector's POV: This isn't a selling show, so no prices were available. Kawauchi's work has only recently entered the secondary markets; with only a few lots sold in various sizes, it's hard to draw many pricing trends from so few outcomes. As a result, gallery retail is still the best option for interested collectors. I don't believe Kawauchi has gallery representation in New York at the moment, so FOIL Gallery in Tokyo (here) will be the place to go.  
 
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Reviews/Features: T Magazine (here), Time Light Box (here)

Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance

Through July 16th

The Gallery at Hermès
691 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065

Rinko Kawauchi, Condensation @Mountain Fold

JTF (just the facts): A total of 34 color images and 1 video, displayed in a small, one-room gallery space. 29 of the images (all c-prints, mounted on Plexiglas) have been hung in an uneven installation across several walls, clustered together in varying sizes without frames. The other 5 images are much larger and have been traditionally framed in white with no mat. All of the works are printed in editions of 3, except 2 of the large prints, which are in editions of 6. The images come in three sizes, irrespective of their size in the installation: small (10x10 or 8x12), medium (20x20 or 20x23), and large (40x40 or 30x45). The show is a mix of old and new work, going back to 2006. The color video runs 20 minutes, and is as yet untitled. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Rinko Kawauchi's photographs are deceptively simple. At first glance, they are easily mistaken for fleeting snapshots of unassuming moments and everyday objects: a flower in the rain, a tree trunk, a bag of gold fish, a squirt gun, the tail lights of a car, a waterfall, a baby nursing, an empty swing, or a glittering diamond. Seen together in this installation, these modest images take on a different character; they are like a breath of fresh air, a life affirming and wholly original look at the natural cycles around us.

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In an age where photography has often become weighed down in conceptual frameworks, depressing realities and ironic commentaries, Kawauchi's work is remarkably guileless; it is light and optimistic, even in moments of melancholy or meditation, with a child-like openness to exploring the world. Many of the images share an enveloping bright glare (not harsh but somehow soft), natural light pouring out of the pictures, obscuring their details. Others have an uncorrupted clarity, an overlooked fragment of life suddenly coming into view. The video takes this same aesthetic and applies it to movement (via snippets of film): ants in a hole, a bubbling hot pot, kids playing soccer, a helicopter taking off, crowds on the street, wind across dunes, a hair band of colored marbles, fans at a stadium, koi being fed in a pond, a child playing with a flashing toy. Perfectly commonplace moments are somehow connected via a surplus of attention; it's as if Kawauchi is noticing the wonders of these things for the very first time.

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Not every image in this show is truly able to hold its own as a stand alone object (or deserves to be blown up to 40x40), but when these works are placed together in groups or clusters, they function well in creating an overall mood. Kawauchi has a singular point of view, extraordinary in its simplicity and lightness, a surprisingly refreshing foil to the dominant trends in the medium.

Collector's POV: Prices in this show are based on size: the smallest prints are $3500, the medium ones are $6500, and the large prints are $10000. Kawauchi was previously represented by Cohan and Leslie in New York, which is now closed; I don't believe this show signals a new permanent relationship. Until her representation is re-established in New York, her work can also be found at FOIL Gallery in Tokyo (here). Kawauchi's work has only recently entered the secondary markets; with just a handful lots sold (in various sizes), it is hard to draw much pricing history from these few data points.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• ICP Infinity award, 2009 (here)
• Interview: Kopenhagen, 2006 (here)
• Aila exhibit @UCR, 2004 (here)

Rinko Kawauchi, Condensation

Through November 28th

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Mountain Fold Gallery
55 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Book: Rinko Kawauchi, Aila

JTF (just the facts): Rinko Kawauchi, Aila, published in 2005 by FOIL. (Cover image at right.) This book is a revised edition of the book originally published by Little More in 2004. 165 color images (one image per page), with no text (also no pagination or image titles).

Comments/Context: It is always interesting to watch to see which new emerging photographers somehow find a way to break through the noise and separate themselves from all the others trying to get attention. Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer in her mid 30s who has published a handful of books, won a few international prizes, and generated a surprising amount of buzz. When the press releases use phrases like "one of most celebrated photographers of her generation" for someone you have barely heard of, you know the spin is on. So when we recently came across her book, Aila, we felt compelled to get a better handle on her work.

Aila is a carefully sequenced group of primarily square format color images of what might be called "the essence of life". There are images of baby animals, insects, flower and plant seedlings, and births of various kinds (human and animal), mixed with a few pictures of waves, sand and forests. If you haven't seen these works (one of the series is shown at left), you are probably thinking to yourself about now that this sounds like the ultimate in tired, self important, camera club cliche.

And yet, there is an unexpected sensitivity to many of these images. Most are lit with a fresh, almost unreal, white light that gives them a fleeting, dreamy quality. While there are a few darker moods interspersed in this body of work, most of the pictures have an authentic, youthful innocence and optimism to them that has been missing from the vast majority of contemporary photography in recent times. Aila means "big family" in Turkish, and taken together, the collective group of pictures does have an inclusive, real sense of family and natural interconnectedness.

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There is clearly some unevenness in quality from page to page in this book; more than a few of these pictures descend into the world of snapshots. But this criticism notwithstanding, there is a clear, consistent and new point of view here. Could it be that we're all tired of fear and skepticism and that hope is back in style?

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Collector's POV: While Kawauchi's work doesn't fit well into our particular collection, I can see why others might find a group of her best images, hung together in a grid, to be quite striking. Kawauchi has had shows at Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne (site here) in 2006 and Cohan and Leslie in New York (site here) in 2007, but her work has not appeared on the secondary market until recently. A set of 9 images from the Aila series are up for sale at Sotheby's London (preview here), with an estimate of 12000-18000 Pounds (the images are each approximately 10 inches square and are individually from editions of 6). Regardless of these market facts, the book itself is a winner and well worth having in your library.

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UPDATE: The set of 9 images up for sale at Sotheby's London (referenced above) was bought in.