Clement RODZIELSKI, Cut Magazines

By cutting out parts of fashion magazines to create abstract compositions, the young French artist Clement Rodzielski reveals the way our clichés of comfort, beauty and dream are pervasively anchored in our readers’ minds. No information here – the titles and texts have been removed – except for bits of images from articles and advertisements. The most illustrative of these images are often views of wild nature, or decorated interiors, two fields that are now commonly associated with well-being. All this, of course, is (voluntarily) all the more fake than it is beautiful.

For those who can, some of Rodzielski’s cut magazines will be shown at Chantal Crousel booth during Artissima Fair.

Images: courtesy the artist.

Mohamed BOUROUISSA, Périphériques

I usually keep a bias towards cautiousness when considering the work of “hot new artists”. A few years, a real buzz surrounded Mohamed Bourouissa, a young photographer born in Algeria and living in France. He received the Voies Off prize at Rencontres d’Arles, and among other things, exhibited some of his “Périphériques” images in the “Younger than Jesus” New Museum show. What a start for an artist who just graduated from Paris’ Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs.
What is it about ? Briefly described, staged snapshots of street scenes in Paris suburbs, striking and beautiful at the same time. The influences are numerous, including of course Jeff Wall. At first impression, I was afraid of being manipulated: struck by no more than clichés of violent suburb areas.

Some time has passed by, and I would now more relate the Periphériques series to Paul Graham’s American night, which is a compliment in my mind. The work is more political than it may first appear to be. Bourouissa is voluntarily playing with social clichés of violence and minorities. People would have probably been waiting for a Nan Goldin type of photographer, with guts and instant snapshots. On the contrary, Bourouissa takes his time, precisely detailing his stages, and borrows his visual compositions from (now) traditional painters, such as Caravagio.
This political stance is even more obvious in his more recent work “Temps mort”, exhibited at Kamel Mennour Gallery. Bourouissa asked jailed acquaintances to take pictures in prison, here again following a precise mandate. Behind the prints, hidden to the view, the artist has inscribed SMS texts, his only link with his characters.

Images courtesy the artist & Mennour Gallery

Oliver SIEBER, Imaginary Club 2 & J_Subs

So far, I had mainly known Olivier Sieber's work from an Internet point of view, for instance through the Bohm/Kobayashi website, an independent publishing project Sieber co-founded with fellow artist Katja Stuke. In a few weeks time, however, I got the opportunity to have a look at several Bohm/Kobayashi books, two of them striking me as outstanding achievements: J_Subs, and Imaginary Club 2. Both are exquisitely printed, and elegantly designed. Full page illustrations, with vibrant yet cold colors, are the most beautiful I’ve seen in a while.

In his Imaginary Club series, Oliver Sieber focuses on people in search for their identity - and I would precise visual identity – whether they are punks, gothic or cosplayers among other marginal groups. The photographer has visited concerts and clubs (hence the title), places where he could find those extraordinary faces. The portraits are shot in a rather traditional composition, that could remind of Italian Renaissance portraits.
The same spirit goes on in J_Subs, though exclusively focused on Japanese characters, punks, rockabillys and psychobillys. The exploration of specific and marginal subcultures once again serves as an opportunity to engage into a visual investigation of contemporary identity.

SANAA & Walter NIEDERMAYR

In May, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, a duo of architects known as SANAA, received the Pritzker Prize for architecture; which gives me the opportunity to focus on a long-term collaboration between Walter Niedermayr and SANAA. In a way that is quite reminiscent of the relationship between Thomas Ruff and Herzog&Meuron, Niedermayr has been working closely with the Japanese architects, in order to document SANAA’s projects, such as the Glass Pavilion in Toledo, the Moriyama House in Tokyo, or more recently, the New Museum in NY.
The collaboration works perfectly: the pale, almost abstract light that characterizes many of Nierdermayr’s images fits well with SANAA’s minimal buildings, that often play with transparency. It also gives a broader view of the Italian photographer’s talent, who got first known for his man-altered alpine landscapes.

Some of these pictures can be found in a book published in 2007 by Hatje Cantz. For those who make the trip to Copenhagen, the Danish Architecture Centre exhibits a selection of these photographs, until October 1st.

Christopher WOOL, Absent without leave

How to define artistic influence ? Let’s take for instance a book published by Christopher Wool in 1993, titled “Absent without leave”. I can’t be sure today’s artists have seen it, or even heard of it. But its content – black and white photocopied photographs of European urban landscapes – resonates with many recent works, focused on the status of images after their alteration. Namely, RH Quaytman, Wade Guyton, Nathan Hylden, and countless others.
Christopher Wool is more well known for his canvases, such as the word paintings. His photo work has less been exhibited, and seems totally out of the scope of the art market. But the way Wool xeroxed the prints, then printing them in offset, in a repetitive yet imperfect manner, fits well with many contemporary strategies in the art world. What is more, “Absent without leave” enjoys an interesting book design. The pages paper and binding yield with an impression of both density and fragility. Its aesthetics pre-announces the return to the very direct and simple style of many publications of our time (Nieves for example), with at least a ten years advance.
For all these reasons, as an answer to the initial question, the book may well become a “classic”, exerting influence for some time again.

April in NY, Photographs auctions

NY will host a new round of art auctions, focused on Photography, held at Christies, Sothebys and Philips de Pury. They will represent an interesting test for the photo market, in a time when art collectors seem to look for “unique” pieces, not editions (I will try to come back to this point later).
Here is a small selection of lots:

Sothebys, April 13
EDWARD BURTYNSKY
'VERMONT MARBLE COMPANY #5, ABANDONED GRANITE SECTION, ROCHESTER, VERMONT'
large-format chromogenic print, mounted, mounted again to foamcore, framed, a title/edition label, signed in ink, on the reverse, 1991, printed in 2001, no. 1 in an edition of 7 (Quarries, p. 69)
12,000—18,000 USD
A real test after strong results for Burtynsky’s prints last autumn
Sothebys, April 13
PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA
LONDON
chromogenic print, mounted, signed in pencil on the reverse, overmatted, framed, 1995, one in an edition of 15
10,000—15,000 USD
One of the nicest images of the “Streetwork” series

Christies, April 15
JOHN COPLANS (1920-2003)
Self Portrait (Clenched Fist over Thumb), 1988
gelatin silver print
signed, titled, dated, numbered '2/12' in pencil and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp (on the reverse of the mount)
$4,000 - $6,000
Coplans’ work seems underestimated, at least by the art market.

Christies, April 15
DAIDO MORIYAMA (B. 1938)
Untitled (Lips), 2007
photosilkscreen on canvas
signed in ink, printed credit, title, date and number '1/1' on a Certificate of Authenticity affixed (on the frame backing)
$8,000 - $12,000
This image was the cover of Moriyama’s Fondation Cartier show. Could beat the estimate.

Images courtesy the artists, Christies, Sothebys

Cyprien GAILLARD, Working in a State of Emergency

In 2007, Cyprien Gaillard, a young French artist, went to Glasgow to take photographs of housing projects and graves that were to be destroyed (the buildings) or restored (the graves). The series, titled “Working in a State of Emergency” evokes an archeological process. The printing and framing of the images goes on with this metaphor: the C-Prints are given a sepia note, while the photographs are place under several layers of matte boards, as if they had been buried and re-discovered many years later.
Photography here retains its first role: keeping trace of a vanishing subject. Thanks to Cyprien Gaillard, these buildings that are not allowed to become ruins (as Hubert Robert’s paintings are full of), are given a lasting mausoleum.