"Jacklighting"

January 27, 2020

French artist Anne-Charlotte Finel presents Jacklighting at The Chimney for her first solo show in the US. Referring to the nocturnal hunting practice of shining bright lights throughout dark fields in order to momentarily stun animals, Jacklighting proves itself both weird and wonderful. Finel's work, focused on spaces affected by unnatural lighting systems, is composed of four reels. And with each video being manipulated both digitally and physically, the story from viewer to viewer may be rather ambiguous.

In Triste Champignonniste (Sad Mushroom Farmer), 2017, Finel films a mushroom farm in a former underground gypsum quarry—although it may look more like the ground for a nuclear bomb shelter as bursting shapes and foggy landscapes are cast upon a pink velvet backdrop. Only upon closer inspection may one gradually discern the actual rotting of elements played upon the deteriorating pixels of the film for a versatile look on decomposition.

As is the case with all of the show’s remaining components, nothing is quite as it seems in Jacklighting. The rhythm of the subjects and the landscapes of the environment speak to the title’s permanent state through the relationship between man and nature, attesting to Finel’s expertise in observing the unordinary and inclination to search for truth in the otherwise vastly unseen.

Text by Caroline Brown
Photos courtesy of The Chimney and the artist; Photography by Reggie Shiobara

Jacklighting is on view at The Chimney until February 23, 2020.

Art

Zeitgeister: A Book of Its Time

The result is Zeitgeister, a book of portraits whose meaning is contained in more than just its many beautiful faces, some of which you may recognize. Shooting with expired film and a fading medium, Kern proposes the future of photography: young models in all their soulfulness and potential. What it illuminates is the moment where past, present and future collide in energetic dialouge, and while it may mourn a lost practice, Zeitgeister most vehemently shows us that it is who we shoot that drives us foward, not how.

Now, in anticipation of his exclusive office book release and signing, we got a chance to pick the brain behind the book. Read on.

"Zeitgeist" is a German word for "the spirit of time" essentially. How is your book, Zeitgeister, in conversation with that concept?

It actually refers more to the spirit of a specific time, so "the spirit of its time," if you will. The project was shot after Fuji had announced that it would cease production of its large format instant film. I still had a fridge full of it, so I knew I had to do something that could only be done then, at that moment. And so I sat down with my good friend and hair stylist Adam Markarian and we came up with this idea: the last of this film, with talent that is of that time, shot by using technology that is of the past. A meeting of zeitgeists. In German the plural of zeitgeist is Zeitgeister.

In that vein, what was the significance of using expired film for the portraits?

The importance to me was less that the film would soon be expired, but that the technology was fading away. It marked the end of an era! Instant photography is now having a sort of revival, but much like vinyl its price point has raised it to a hobby for the enthusiast or well-off. And for large format photography there really is no replacement in sight and we’re left wondering if there ever will be. There was a magical moment with every picture shot on peel-apart instant film: that peeling of the film, the revelation of your creation, had a sense of ceremony that staring at a screen will never have. I think a little ceremony goes a long way on set.

When you were casting this, what were you looking for?

Adam and I needed help with the casting process and luckily we found a very supportive hand in Beth Dubin. Beth had this wild book of Fuji Instax shots of models and we folded through it looking for a good mix of raw and refined. We were thinking it should be kind of yearbook style, people we’d want to run into on the street with a unique style and spirit. We wanted to shoot it super fast, so we were looking for kids that would come with a strong sense of self.

One thing that sticks out when putting your hands on the book is the unique binding and double leafed pages, why that format?

I feel a book should be a whole piece, and every angle indicative of its content and purpose. So to really bring that point home of large format photography, the level of tedium, craft and manpower it takes to operate one efficiently, I reached out to Steve over at Digital Color Concepts and picked his brain. We found this Japanese binding style which is done by hand and then agreed that we should use a French fold to give it heft and gravitas. Together it came to make this book a really tactile experience.

Can you tell us what drove you to put this in print at all? As opposed to a digital feature.

To create something of this scope, at this aesthetic level, takes a lot of time and patience. I felt it warranted to make a lasting piece. Not to say that digital doesn’t have its place, but digital content is quite disposable. I guess one could say instant photography once was too, but large format instant photography is now a true relic of the past. Pictures shot with this process are bound to be a little more contemplative and static and less prone to the crassness of today’s like-driven imagery. I wanted people to take time with the visuals. Look as these people and also at how the film recorded them. I wanted them to bask in a level of nostalgia.

Hardest thing about the process of producing a book?

After looking at the images for so long, trying many different layouts, then paper stocks, then binding options etc etc, the hardest part is to look at it with fresh eyes. To see it the way an independent person would look at it and not see the strain that went in to making it.

Most rewarding?

The journey of creation is one of learning and I find that to be the best part. I learned a lot about a variety of topics, crafts, and even about myself in making this book and I look forward to applying this newly gained knowledge to my next projects.

Zeitgeister is available for pre-order here.

Art

Transmissions from Space

June 26, 2018

This weekend, Natalie White wrapped her solo exhibition titled “Transmissions from Space” in Chelsea. This series of nude self-portraits was shot on the iconic 1978 20x24 Land Camera and explores two major themes: the male gaze and the archetype of female beauty.

Formerly a muse and model for dozens of famous male artists, White has developed a distinctly personal relationship with these two themes, which pervade the reality of any woman working in the artistic realm. Within this series, we see this provocative feminist artist challenge the unrealistic standards imposed on the female form, filtering them through her own celestial lens and perverting the male gaze by subjecting herself to it. It is these clever contradictions that piqued our interest over at office, so we took a moment to ask Natalie some questions.

Interview by Kennedy Fairfax
Photos by Natalie White

Tell me a little about Transmissions from Space? Is there any meaning (besides the obvious) behind the title?

I went into the studio in April to create a new body of work knowing that I wanted to experiment with transfers, but not much else. I wanted the process to guide and inspire me, as the analog method of 20 x 24 Polaroid always does for me. So I set up the first shot with just colored gels over lights as a portrait of my face to test the lighting. There was an accidental “tight gap," meaning the rollers were too close together for that reagent mix, and as a result the dyes are squeezed a bit, causing a mottle pattern.

Most photographers would consider this a mistake and throw away the photo, but to me it looked like a literal “Transmission from Space.” Like if a being was in outer space trying to make contact with earth, that’s what the image would look like transmitting to a screen on earth, hence the title. So I kept making them in different colors, then it led to the double exposures with the NASA images.

The desire to experiment with transfers (literally transferring the polaroid chemicals against a saturated piece of watercolor paper) came from my childhood on my grandma's farm in West Virginia. I found a late-70s Polaroid in her basement, which still used peel-off film, and I inadvertently came up with my own transfer method by pressing photos I'd taken of flowers onto paper. It was full-circle to execute these more sophisticated transfers via this giant camera of the same era.

I know you were formerly a model and muse for dozens of male artists. How does your past inform your artistic present in terms of form and content?

The education I received working with some of the greatest artists of our time was invaluable, but I would say the most important lesson that I use from my past is to trust my own instinct. Sure I learned lighting, form, composition, and everything else you need to make a photo or painting, but trusting myself is the most important. Just like in this series, I made a mistake that inspired a whole new body of work and I ran with it.

What current issue are you most passionate about?

Achieving full equality for women in the United States Constitution. We are only 1 state away from full ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, ensuring constitutional equality for all sexes under law. After traveling to Illinois 5 times over the past few months while meeting with legislators, organizing protests, phone banking, and working as co-director of Equal Means Equal, Illinois finally became the 37th state to ratify the ERA. All of the state legislatures will be back in session in January, and I will be traveling all over the US with activists to make sure we achieve what the last and final state needs to change the Constitution once and for all.

What drew you to this specific photographic medium? Can you describe your artistic process for this series?

I’ve always loved Polaroids because they have a depth and immediacy that digital photography simply does not. You don’t have to wait for a lab to finish color correcting or printing. It’s right there in 20 x 24 inch format, take it or leave it.

My artistic process for this series on the polaroids was setting up colored gels over lights, which are placed strategically to paint light onto my face and hands. For the giant polaroid transfers, I manipulated NASA’s images from space and double-exposed them with myself, then I manually cranked the film out of the camera. Instead of letting the polaroid develop, I peeled the negative from the positive immediately and placed it onto wet watercolor paper for 5 minutes, then peeled the negative off to reveal a giant polaroid transfer.

Is there belief or idea that you had when you were the model that has now changed or been challenged since you have become the artist?

I’ve always been an artist. In the work other people made of me I was just a performance artist or a collaborating figure. So now I just feel more comfortable that I have control of the entire process.

Art

Booth No. R1

Abraham Cruzvillegas’ pink and green found objects from his ongoing ‘autoconstrucción’ project, building on a concept of drawing from the city around where the exhibit is staged (what wonders he finds!); Jimmie Durham’s strange and magical industrial-materials-meet-Native American iconography via movable sculpture; and a wonderfully weird darkling muppet-caught-in-a-blender piece by Haegue Yang.

And there is, of course, Sarah Lucas’s marvelous standout: a dog-like guardian statue, standing at attention or shocked into silence, whose surface is made almost entirely out of cigarettes — is he about to ignite? Please do not smoke the artwork.