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Молодая российская фотография
Автор: Ольга Джола C 7 по 21 января в Манеже, в рамках юбилейной 15-ой ежегодной выставки новых произведений петербургских художников "ПЕТЕРБУРГ-2007" , прошла, устроенная Фотодепартаментом, масштабная выставка "МОЛОДАЯ РОССИЙСКАЯ ФОТОГРАФИЯ/2007".
В «левой» галерее манежа, под названием «Молодая Российская Фотография» располагались серии всех участников первого сезона выставочного проекта "Имя собственное", организованного Информационным центром/бюро «ФотоДепартамент». Целью этого проекта, явилась с одной стороны, – поддержка молодых авторов, с другой стороны – поиск новых имён в фотографии, а в общем - налаживание механизма взаимодействия куратора и фотографа.
Концепция всего проекта, реакция публики, и, собственно, творчество авторов показали, что молодое поколение фотографии в нашей стране существует, развивается и ничем не уступает общемировым тенденциям.
Петр Ловыгин
Дарья Ястребова
DIALOG BETWEEN BARI ZIPERSTEIN AND IRINA VALKOVA
BARI. How could two artists who live half way across the world, St. Petersburg and Los Angeles - one living under post-industrialization and the other post-communism, have an artistic practice which manifests with such similar aesthetic and conceptual concerns? Perhaps, it’s our consideration of the psychology of space/architecture in relationship to our locations, which have lead us both to transform our living spaces into quirky sculptural environments. Often by adding stark white site-specific sculptures that protrude from our apartments and documenting the process through photography. above: Bari Zipperstein, Unititled, 2007 
TWO ARTISTS FROM 'AKKLIMITIZATSIA' IN TRANSCONTINENTAL CONVERSATION
IRINA. I have actually lived both in St. Petersburg and in Los Angeles, two years in each city. In both cities I felt a sort of estrangement from the architectural culture of residential buildings. In Los Angeles, there are many houses made of very lightweight materials, which are cheap and adjusted to the local natural conditions such as the high possibility of an earthquake or warm weather all year round. This type of architecture corresponds, in my opinion, both to the materials you have chosen for your project and to the project itself. What I found absolutely astonishing in Saint-Petersburg was walls, floors and the plumbing system which were just painted over so many times instead of being redone that they almost got a new shape - more rounded and at the same time kind of ‘formless’.
BARI. In order for a real-estate investment to pay off, decisions must be cost affective, practical, and idiosyncratic when remodeling a flat for a new tenant. Recently, fabricated Styrofoam molding was attached with glue to window ledges of my apartment complex. The economy of materials makes sense for Los Angeles. In both of our projects, decisions about building materials becomes crucial to the authenticity of the photograph. An aesthetic of seamlessness, cleanliness, and whiteness becomes normalized by the sculptures integration into its environment through photography.
I am curious how you think about your more organic shapes, do you think of them as parasites? Perhaps making a psychological or architectural problem more visible?
IRINA. Both in your work and mine I find crucial the idea of continuation and growth.
Personally, I was thinking about the abnormal growth. The architectural problem is expressed through the reference to a sickness, morbidity. This sickness could entail parasitism (as cancer does).
BARI. Similar to your work, my stark white architectural beams, made of foam core and plaster, mutate out of functional and decorative objects, rendering an environment that is overgrown, monumental, illusionary and artificial. I conceptually distinguish between which sculptures are props for the photographs and which sculptures are on display in the gallery, ultimately adding to the set quality of the final images. When simultaneously exhibiting both sculpture and photography, there is never a one to one ratio between either. If a sculpture makes an appearance in a photograph it acts as a mere prop and is discarded upon the completion of the shoot.
Do you display the objects that appear in your photographs? For the installation in Helsinki, you did have both the photograph and the displaced white sculpture displayed in relation to one another. At the time, I recall you asking whether it was necessary to actually display the sculpture, which had a discrepancy to the slick photograph. In person, the sculpture was cracking and the color was aging. Have you come to any conclusion?
IRINA. At first, the photograph was taken as a documentation to my work. The actual context in which this particular piece was made was crucial: the sculpture is not simply adjusted to the particular wall, it is cast into it, so that the sculpture ideally coincides with the wall, floor and furniture. It is literally a part of the actual domestic setting, but at the same time it can be separated. So it’s pretty obvious: if the sculpture suits one wall or environment, it won’t suit another. It will look foreign and sort of restless, which is a conscious strategy. In other words, I see these sculptures as two Russian ‘travelers’ who come to Helsinki from Saint Petersburg and appear to feel a bit awkward in a totally different context, whereas in Saint Petersburg one can hardly discern them among other objects. In fact, I recall locals coming to our flat and not noticing the sculpture.
Akklimаtizatsia
Akklimаtizatsia--curated by Emily Newman and Olga Jitlina, and marking the beginning an ongoing collaboration between the Comics Gallery and closely situated Smolny College--pairs works made by artists steeped in the phenomenological realities of two distant cities—St Petersburg and Los Angeles. Both cities stand as experimental extremes, outposts on the western perimeters of sprawling Nations. While St Petersburg’s center was built for horse-carriages, it’s outer districts were laid with motorways so wide they seem to have anticipated the car-crazy California individualism of the Post Soviet generation--the result is a smog so dense that, in both cities, it hangs in the air like an object. This, among other connections drawn, tentatively link the cities by their inverse but similarly otherworldly landscapes and climates. The show opens on the third of May at the C.A.G. Gallery, 33 Galernaya Ulitsa, St Petersburg and is up until the 17th. 'Акклиматизация' left: Jan Vormann
'Akklimаtizatsia'
Open Studio's first exhibit in
St Petersburg
Participating artists include: Alina Belishkina, Stas Bags, Maria Domogatskaya, Victoria Fu, Hadley Holliday, Alice Konitz, Gian Martin Joller, Julie Orser, John Pearson, Evgenia Mukhina, Jed Lind, Michael Queenland, Masha Sha, Jen Schwarting, Adam Schwartz, Konstantin Ushakov, Irina Valkova, Jan Vormann and Bari Zipperstein and Igor Vasiliev.
Эмили Ньюман и Ольга Житлина, кураторы выставки «Акклимитизация», с которой начинается сотрудничество между галереей Comics и находящимся по соседству Смольным Институтом Свободных Наук и Искусств, поместили рядом работы художников из Санкт-Петербурга и Лос-Анджелеса - двух мегаполисов, стоящих на страже западных границ своих необъятных стран. Смог висит в воздухе Петербурга и Лос-Анджелеса, как топор, хотя оба города были специально созданы для райской жизни в прежде необитаемых, потусторонних пустошах – на сырых камнях и в раскаленной пустыне. Эта искусственность и пугает, и манит безлюдными зданиями, нечеловеческими пропорциями, выплескивающимся на поверхность подпольем. «Лед и пламень» - два города - притягивающие друг друга.
Clockwise from top left: John Pearson, Hadley Holliday and Gian-Martin Joller, Olga Jitlina, Installation shot, Alice Konitz, Adam Schwartz and Hadley Holliday
see a local review of the show here
read more...