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See Read Discuss Reflect


This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
Not too long ago, I found myself struggling with complex issues around objectivity/subjectivity, context, and relationships between artist, viewer and subject, on my level three photography course, Your Own Portfolio.
From level 2, I felt guided by tutors and course material to work in larger projects, stretching over longer periods of time, and an element of change in the work itself between start and end, started to emerge. Aesthetically and contextually, reflecting on my own journey through getting to know a landscape/urban space, and my own relationship with the subject, I became more aware that I was with dealing with constant change.
The idea of exploring a subject (literal, conceptual, metaphorical), and reflecting on the exploration, then to continue on a line that organically emerged from these explorations, to be followed by the construction of the larger context behind the body of work (after the creation of it), was, and still is, something I’m struggling with.
The problem for me, as most likely for other individuals on open learning courses, is that it is all too easy to distance ourselves from the world, and create a safe space in which our work make sense to ourselves. But the danger is that we may lose sight of relationships and context in the wider concept of the world, which adds multiple dimensions to our own work, and that of other artists.
Earlier this month, on March 11th and 13th, the China OCA group (consisting of Susanne and myself, OK, maybe not a group then …) did one of our DIY study days. The Monday evening was part of the Shanghai Literary Festival, a talk by two German photographers, Peter Bialobrzeski and Michael Wolf, and the Wednesday was a visit to the very interesting Power Station of Art, a modern gallery not much different from Tate Modern. The Power Station of Art exhibition proved immensely interesting with works by Nishino Kozo, Zhang Huan, Phil Collins (not the singer), Marcel Duchamp, Brassaii, Wang Yuyang and so many more (full blog entry here). But it was thought-provoking work by Boris Mikhailov, that asked many questions and sparked discussion, not only between Susanne and myself at the time, talking about the exploitation of the poor, but also on the OCA Flickr group, did we have a lively discussion here).
It was however, the Monday evening talk by Bialobrzeski and Wolf, that made for really interesting discussions, even disagreeing on some things, around not only the person as artist, but also as speaker.
Susanne was more taken by Wolf, as she felt he was ‘… pretty straight forward. He spoke with the knowledge of someone who had lived in Hong Kong for 15 years and travelled as a photojournalist all over the mainland. In other words, I felt that he could see more than meets your eye if you fly in for a week to comment on China…’
I found myself connecting much better with Bialobrzeski’s work, which is more concerned with the environment, and less so with elements of inside culture like Wolf’s. Strangely, while Susanne felt Bialobrzeski sounded vague and too technical (he’s a professor, and we were not his students after all), I took more notes in forms of questions that I could use to reflect on my own work, than during Wolf’s narrated slide-show. Don’t take me wrong, both of us liked some work by both artists, and some work we didn’t like as much. But we had clear ‘favourites’.
Where Wolf’s work is about the found elements of the culture, the chairs, the little kitchen gods, lost laundry, Bialobrzeski’s work deals more with made cities, the larger picture, and our impact on our space, nature and man-made drive for survival.
Another interesting thing that was said at the talk was that both of them usually start to work on a project which grows out of exploring spaces or ideas, and then later matures into the final pieces (books) or larger bodies of exhibition work.
It was afterwards when we discussed the talk that it came forward that we saw Wolf as an outsider with inside knowledge, seeing China from inside. While Bialobrzeski could be seen as still an outsider, commenting from outside. I guess the question can be asked why the two of us were taken by their respective work…
In my mind, this then comes back to the questions raised earlier in my course on subjectivity/objectivity/relationships/context.
Our opinions of these two artists were different, and although our responses to the artworks on display at Power Station of Art were similar, it was the element of discussing these things, giving different perspectives, and creating questions to which I (we?) still do not have answers to, which proved to be invaluable.
It may not be possible for everyone at OCA to be part of a local group, but having even just one co-student, has already changed the way I see, approach, question and engage with the work I see, read up on, and reflect upon later.
I guess this can be a nudge to other students out there, especially level 1, please engage in online or local group activities, gallery visits, or possibly just a scrapbook / logbook chat over a cup of coffee with another co-student, even if on another course. Getting a different perspective becomes so much easier through discussion or even disagreement, because it drives you to back-up and question your own ideas and thoughts.
Go and see everything you can, even if it’s not your own medium (I recently fell in love with an oil painting by Maurice de Vlaminck, of all things!). Then read up on what you saw (if you didn’t get to read up beforehand), and then reflect on how you felt, your responses (positive, and especially negative) and how this helps you to see relationships and context between things, and see if you can see your own work from a different angle.
Dewald’s blog: http://southlivingblog.wordpress.com/
Image credit: © Dewald Botha, Power Station of Art – Phil Collins, Free Fotolab, 2009


Posted by author: Dewald

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