Photo Galleries' Masterpieces - Essay Example

Valerie Balin YOHOHO Exhibition at Michael Hoppen Introduction The moment I entered Micheal Hoppen Gallery, every fragile piece of art that towered in front of me left me speechless. Valerie Belin’s creations are suffused with a delicate decadence of surreal imaginative places. New silver gelatin prints were showcased in her art holdings in this gallery. This French artist got inspired by the crowded and cheerful worlds of burlesque. Pictures captured in Paris caught my eye. One could see a whole different world behind the minute details of the photographs. Paris never looked that beautiful under the rays of the scorching sun. Natural beauty was at its best! Belin pictures were completely devoid of any form of aliveness. These twelve black and white gelatin prints housed inside this gallery soothed my nerves. These pictures of paris showed different historical stages of this place. She took out the history and the personality of the objects and used these as an inspiration for her amazing photographs. Body: Valerie Belin was born in 1964 in Paris, and held numerable exhibitions before this like the ones in Centre Georges Pompidou, Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Museum of Modern Art, New York etc. (Dessanay, 2012, p1). Belin gave her pictures a weird mysterious look by combing two negatives together. there was no human presence in the pictures she captured it with a black and white effect, contrasting the light effects. Some details given to the photograph made it so mesmerizing and compelled me to ponder on Belin’s outstanding photography skills. She used the modern technology in the best possible way and gave her pictures a more dreamlike pictorial effect. One viewed these pictures as drawings, not photographs due to their mystic beauty and artistic shades.At one corner of the gallery, crystal vases and glasses laid on the table. She scrutinized the light spectrum of these inanimate objects and focused on the primary process of her photography. The best of all were the pictures of Dancer at the lido, magicians and fruit basket. Supernaturalism of Belin’s work was revealed through her pictures with a less documentary effect. She demonstrated her painterly view in these art pictures which were far away from naturalism which forced me to think of a question regarding the ambiguous scenes that were a part of these pictures. These were captured at oblique angles with perfection and made baroque and disquieting beauty a part of them. One thing I noted was that these pictures had illusions of the external world which made these images artificial and enchanted with fantasies. The black and white effect of the pictures appears to be black markers, giving an image to the viewer that it’s a handmade painting. This was the unique art of Belin that made me out of words. With such exquisite pieces of art, not a single art lover can comprehend what type of technique of photography Belin has used in her art pieces. This makes her art holding legendary and masterpieces. As an art student, all I could this was grasp the hidden meaning folded deep inside the photographs in the streets of Paris. With no presence of human, her pictures left some eerie effects on the viewers. These images appeared to me as apparitional and objects looked hollow. Her photographic skills helped her and she transcended formal resemblance. Messages behind these pictures dangled between illusion and reality. The sumptuous details, visual buoyancy, richness and chaos were the key elements of her pictures which made them remarkable and completely out of the box. With no naturalism, Belin was able to produce pieces which are hard to forget. An unsettling balance was observed between two things-abstract and representational. The subject matter of all these pictures was not the same and provided us to ponder over different things when seeing different prints inside the gallery (Dessanay, 2012, p1). Confrontational and beautiful art pieces were illuminated inside the gallery. With perfect light system, every picture under a spotlight lit in front of me answered to my every minute detail regarding respective pictures. She didn’t take help of the beauty of colors. She did not give any other reason to love these twelve pictures but the colorless objects which were not meaningless. These exhibits are spread over seven centuries, showing us about different cultures, traditions and way of living. As there is no human presence, one cannot see what type of people lived at the time, but these inanimate objects surely gave an idea about them. This is what art is all about. You don’t have to search for several things to draw a conclusion. At times, even a small thing can convey you big meanings, and this was seen in Belin’s photographs. Everyone looked around the gallery trying to find the presence of reality, but this was something non-existent in these pictures. Creating fantasies in the minds of the people was the main idea behind these photographs. Sometimes illusions created sum up the hidden desires of human beings housed inside their minds. Belin wanted to them to discover these hidden secrets through her creations and she was pretty successful. Her variety of pictures exhibited high standards and immense perfection that is hard to achieve. Conclusion: Valerie was known as exploration of tension between illusion and reality. She presented luminous studies of the world, giving reference to gaudy stages. Having the inspiration from the history of these places, she preferred still like rather than landscape. So this exhibition was a treat for all the still life photographers who visited this and I was among them. Even in that time, she made the best use of modern technology and inspired many of the photographers to try new and unique techniques to produce a more remarkable product by the end of the day. She didn’t go for a clinical or a detached style but made a use of the camera collecting all the exotic details which usually photographers don’t capture. This was the main essence of this pictures-uniqueness. I really liked her work and got impresses by her way of photography, her passion to capture something way beyond human’s imagination, trying to unveil the meanings hidden behind these black and white illusions. This was a treat for all the photographers! Yoko Ono to the Light Exhibition at Serpentine Gallery: As I stood in front of the Serpentine Gallery, amid the lushness of the Kensington Gardens, I could see the jaw-dropping work of Ono’s. Her ‘To the Light’ Exhibition exhibited some of the ever-amazing radical art that showed Ono’s command on performance art, conceptual art, video art etc. Her art showed a link with the garde figures, like John Cage, of her times (Ferris, 2012, p1). In the exhibition, a theme of war dominated in all his old and recent art work. This was a light show which demonstrated Ono’s groundbreaking art holdings. Ceiling Painting is one of those conceptual sculptures that made me spell bound. I stood under it. There was a framed sheet of paper on the rooftop, leaded by a ladder. I grabbed the dangling magnifying glass and my eyes scrutinized the tiny letters written on the paper which said ‘yes’. The yellow bulb threw a perfect amount of light on the paper, enabling the art lovers to see and dwell into this amazing art piece. The perfect title, with this perfect setting of this art piece enabled Ono to meet her future husband. One of Ono’s radical artistic gestures was demonstrated in the center of the exhibition hall known as Cut Piece, where she sat expressionless and her face as blank as an unwritten paper. Members from the audience were cutting her clothes with scissors. This was something really weird and conceptual. A silver spotlight over her body drew everyone’s attention. This greatly showcased and demonstrated the ‘war theme’ telling us about people facing the tyranny and the pain. Another commendable creation of Yoko Ono was ‘Vertical Memory’ which made me speechless. Its creativity and uniqueness was something worth watching. Ono took different photographs of her father, husband and son, in which all of them were seeing in a similar direction. Ono did the most amazing editing, combining them and in the end, morphed them. Ono explained this creation by saying: “the man who was looking over me in a precise moment when I went through an important situation in my life”. This creation was among the category of ‘Conceptual Photography’. With this outstanding amalgamation of 21 pictures with different 21 texts showing her experiences, memories in a very short pose. This creation was considered to be a culmination of her entire life’s work. With this contemporary art, she gave all the art lovers a chance to relate themselves with the art pieces she exhibited (Ferris, 2012, p1). Defying all the traditional boundaries, Yoko Ono created defined various forms of artistic expressions with this amazing ‘To the light’ exhibition illustrating the contemporary world with perfection, well defined inanimate objects and magnificent light arrangement. There are some creations of Ono which gave us some alternative vision of the world with a distinctive message rather than simple answers and explanations. One of them is ‘Fly’ which demonstrates an interesting and unique picture of fruit flies trying to explore a naked body of a woman. This painting gives us a perspective view, a tiny small creature on an alien and strange landscape of the body. The most interesting part in the entire exhibition was the specially designed photo booth installed in the entrance of the Serpentine Gallery. It gave the visitors a chance to record their smiles and see other people’s smiles. This was kind of weird and different idea by Ono which enabled the visitors to tap into their transformative potential of their smiles. This transmission was associated with healing and peace, giving a positive energy to the Smiling visitors. To the Light Exhibition by Yoko Ono was something way beyond imagination which enabled us, all the art lovers to comprehend the paintings and the sculptures in their own meanings and view them differently. I really liked the theme as all the paintings were trying to convey a distinct war related messages and these clearly demonstrated the time during which these art holdings were produced. Edward Burtynsky and RAQS MEDIA COLLECTION at the Photographers' Gallery: This photographer’s gallery showcased some of the most amazing artistic paintings ever I have encountered in my entire life. Each and every painting hung on the wall, conveyed some kind of message and their title explaining them with perfection. Every art lover and photographer present there had the most exciting experience as these pictures were not only a wooden framed lifeless picture but it demonstrated the lives of the people who were present and the picture of the world at that time. London’s largest photo gallery was showing the most amazing media collection of paintings and pictures of various famous people, one of them being Edward Burtnsky which demonstrated a theme. All the classic pictures showed consequences and circumstances of oil production, telling how it was produced, the procedure of the refinement of oil and conveyed a message through some paintings regarding the oil industry degrading the beautiful environment and creating waste and pollution. This helped in spreading awareness among the people and showed them how these anti-environment practices are being undertaken in their story and how important is for them to stop them. Every floor of the building of this Photographer’s gallery was confined for a specific theme. For example: the third floor which showed pictures related to education. Every floor threw light on various topics and areas and helped the visitors to focus on every topic separately. Many orthodox forms of photography was seen and showed work of artists belonging to the contemporary world. The existing and new floors allowed natural light to illuminate the gallery. Situated in the heart and soul of the city, Soho, this gallery encouraged the inclusion of photography, especially contemporary photography and managed to showcase the skills and talents of numerable artists. The pictures of Edward Burtynsky were transformed by human intervention (Wood 2012 p17). This gallery created a very naturalistic environment due to the presence of some natural objects being exhibited in the most artistic elegant way such as slabs of granite. Some of the pictures were taken from helicopter, like the ones of oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. Edward tried to demonstrate the condition of the world, where it is going and how this land contamination is taking place and affecting the lives of the people. A sense of ecological horror and disoriented paintings were showcases. A wide range of comprehensive uses and effects of oil production were beautifully depicted by Edward. His pictures’ main idea was to make people aware by showing them the real deteriorating scenario. With perfect titles of every creation, these pictures left a great impact in the minds of the art lovers who visited this place like me and experienced the other, dark side of the world. Peter Fraser- A CITY IN THE MIND at Brancolini: Peter Fraser is the man who created the best portrait of London ever. It was actually inspired by a novel written by Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities telling about his travel to various cities and his experiences. A poetic vision of London was appeared in the creations of Peter Fraser. Some of the pictures were captured in his own home situated in London (Fraser, 2012, 43). Some enigmatic and unique images were captured in a completely natural environment. No such artificial setting was observed in his art holdings. Fraser’s photographs demonstrated antiquated miniatures of various objects and models, mainly from some sort of museum. The visceral texture added life to these photographs of various inanimate objects like chestnuts lying on a table, a conch shell and several antique models. The objects which Fraser selected for his photographs were seen as portals from the other world, allowing the visitors to take a sneak peek into various civilizations and histories. He captured photographs of the things that were a reason of immense fascination to him, and mostly not to most of the people. This showed uniqueness in his art and a different approach in the world of art. It gives us one conclusion that ultimately, the creation of cities is undertaken inside a human’s mind and this is what the name explains-City in the mind, giving us a perfect idea about Fraser’s artistic work. One of the most amazing photographs that I came across was of an object covered around numerable cocktail sticks poked inside a polystyrene cup. Under the sunlight, this picture was taken and tried to convey a beautiful thought. This was a good example of a brain trying to direct a hand to change the nature of the materials around him. This still life photography showed some of the most unique and strange pieces of art in his pictures. As I walked along the gallery, I got dwelled into the creative and magical photography of Fraser in which myriad creative possibilities of the cities he visited were philosophized. Several different interpretations of only one city were seen in the photographs giving a chance to all the people to see various dimensions and picture of one city. The world is a whole new place with unimaginable cities and different mysteries housed inside them. This was something scribbled in Steidl’s book. In the city of London, where he started capturing his meaningful photographs showed his different perspectives of one place. The mind plays the dominant role which sees everything according to his wish and reflects some kind of hidden side of everything housed inside one city. One of his art pieces was picture of a two-walled box, with an abstract pattern printed inside it. Inside this big box was a delicate and fragile structure of sticks with different colored boxes at the end. It was something difficult to comprehend but showcased Fraser’s unique photography skill. Brancolini exhibited one of the most remarkable photographs captured by the ever-amazing Peter Fraser who has done an outstanding job and inspired many art lovers like me, giving them a ray of hope that they too will be blessed with such an inspiring future. References Dessanay, M. (2012). YOHOHO Exhibition by Valérie Belin. Photography Creates Eerie Effects. Retrieved online from http://www.frameweb.com/news/yohoho-exhibition-by-valerie-belin Ferris, L. (2012). ‘Yoko Ono: To the Light, Serpentine Gallery, London’. The Independent, 20th June 2012. Retrieved online from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/yoko-ono-to-the-light-serpentine-gallery-london-7869350.html Fraser, P. (2012). A City in the Mind. UK: Steidl Wood, T. (2012). ‘At the Photographers’ Gallery’. London Review of Books 34(12): 17 Read More