Curiously Incongruous: June 2004

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BarbicanStairwellLamp

This is a lamp in a stairwell at the Barbican Centre where there are two shows I went to see today. The one I went to see was the Tina Modotti and Edward Weston show. In the early 1920's both were living in San Francisco. Aspiring socialite Tina Modotti and her artist husband were at the centre of a bohemian group of international artists. Her husband died and she and Weston ran off to Mexico as lovers and "artists on a mission", Weston leaving his wife and 3 kids and promising to teach her how to be a photographer. Once in Mexico their relationship was stormy involving sex, artistic challenge and photographic competition. The photographs are from this period they lived/worked and shared bodily fluids together. As usual, such passion quickly attaches itself elsewhere and Modotti found a new lover leaving Weston emotionally stranded.

I was struck by several points. The photos (and Weston and Modetti are known for their high level of control and darkroom expertise) were far more muted in dynamic range and significantly darker than anything that would get a good comment on the zillion photoboards like photo.net. I was also surprised that they although they used 4x5 cameras many of their prints were tiny, maybe 4 inches by 3 inches. You can do photos that size with 2 megapixel camera. Nonetheless, its an interesting show. These people were working 80 years ago and their portraits are really well done with lots of personality (and they knew a lot of personalities) and the formalism of their constructions is high quality and sensitive. Their work is minimalistic with maximum expression.

If you know why their photos were so lacking in dynamic range, were so dark and so often small, how about dropping a comment on this post and let me know why.

Also being shown, a "twofer" is a Helen Chadwick retrospective. I didn't know Helen Chadwicks' work but it was quite creative, sensual and showed terrific development over time. I thought the 250kg of liquid chocolate in huge hot tob with a fountain like pedistal (ohhh the aroma) was one of the most erotic sculptures I've ever seen. It's 8 quid to get in to see both shows.

June 30, 2004 at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

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