For the 10% Presentation due on the 12th October, Matt & I have been assigned Taryn Simon, who born in New York during 1975, is an artist who expresses in many ways including text, sculpting, performance as well as photography. Well thought out bodies of work are achieved through extensive research into critical subjects relating to human classification.
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| Black Square XIV. |
My first impression of her work is somewhat bland, for example with 'Black Square' she has photographed obscure objects, individuals or documents within a dark black frame that gets repetitive and there were several images that I don't even see the point of documenting, such as the one of just a white space within a black frame, arguably the average colour of the universe. Simon has expressed however that the work is meant to replicate that of Kazimir Malevich's 'Black Square' work of 1915.
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| Kenny, Selectively inbred White Tiger. |
There are other works from Simon however that I really like, such as the 'American Index of Hidden & Unfamilier' that documents the inner workings, objects & cultures that are not first apparent when visiting America. Simon provides an insight for the general public that do not get access to these sights that make America tick. The work was made during a time when there was little trust with the government that provided little transparency with it's voters in the years following 9/11. Simon set out to create a body of work that had no political agenda, just to document what the average Joe would otherwise be oblivious to. The work is spread across a vast subject matter from Security, Science, Government, Medicine, Entertainment & Nature. The broad spectrum highlights just how much (or how little) the public actually know about these fields, taking a 'schizophrenic' approach to disorientate the viewer when moving onto the next subject. Simon has said that 80% of the work that went into this project was establishing & chasing up contacts or relationships with those in a position to grant her access to photograph the subjects that she wanted, with several roads leading to a dead end the most notable being Disneyland not allowing their underground tunnel system to be photographed to preserve the fantasy illusion that surrounds the theme park.
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| Ron Williamson, Drafted by the A's before wrongly serving an 11 year Murder sentence. |
This is another one of Simon's works that I am very interested in, and it shows portraits of individuals that have been wrongly identified for some very serious crimes, subsequently being convicted & serving substantial time in prison. The work is accompanied by a very moving and emotional series of video interviews that provides an insight into what these men have been through. The very well thought out still images are still very striking however as they are placed in a relevant location to their 'crime', arrest, or alibi. In some instances these men have never even visited these places before however they have had a significant impact of their lives through their illegitimate conviction. These cases have been raised due to mis-identification within the justice system, assuming the sketches, mugshots, polaroids, and line-ups are all accurate depends on precise visual memory from the victim in the end. 'Photography offered the criminal justice system a tool that transformed innocent citizens into criminals.' Simon wanted an opportunity for photography to redeem itself as a major role to play in the justice system of America, confronting it's ability to blur truth with fiction - 'an ambiguity that can have severe, even lethal consequences.'
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