The MUMOK is presenting, for the first time in
Austria, a comprehensive overview of the work of
Canadian photographer Jeff Wall. Born in
Vancouver in 1946, Wall developed his
characteristic pictorial form -- large-sized
slides set in lighted display cases -- in the
late 70s. With these, he made a decisive
contribution towards an upgrading of photography
as a genre in its own right and establishing it
on a par with sculpture and painting. The
Viennese exhibition unites, besides One with a
Rifle, the image bought for the museum's
permanent collection, a further 25 partially
out-sized translites, as well as black-and-white
pictures from all of the artist's creative
periods. Well-known and spectacular works (such
as Milk and Restoration) on show as are rarely
exhibited works (e. g. The Bridge and Steve's
Farm).
|
Quite deliberately, the Viennese exhibition
attempts to modify the cliché of Wall as a
"painter of modern life",
demonstrating, instead, his intense preoccupation
with the history and the representational
conventions of the medium of photography. The
selection from his output, therefore,
concentrates on the close links between the
artist and the traditions of documentary and
straight photography. Wall's more reflective
relationship with details, formats, camera angles
and forms of presentation as photographic ways of
constituting meaning aims at taking a questioning
look behind the facade of visual representation.
|
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue
including texts by Kaja Silverman, Homay King,
Peter Bürger, Gregor Stemmrich, Tom Holert,
Achim Hochdörfer, Friedrich Tietjen, and Fred
Orton/Lisa Joyce. (ISBN 3-33375-683-0, EUR 24) |
