PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

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1 NEWS WEB EXCLUSIVE PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT BY Rebecca Robertson POSTED 03/06/14 9:30 AM Photo-spotting at the museum turns up photosculpture, photo-performance, and a view of Madison Avenue like you've never seen it It s been a long time since photography was considered a separate medium made by people who called themselves photographers the medium has been thoroughly absorbed and blended with painting and sculpture, video and installation for several decades at least. But it can be fun to check in on photography in a show like the Whitney Biennial, which offers a broad look at rising trends and new directions in art. These seven artists from this year s show, which spans three floors and was curated by three different people, prove that photography is hardly over it s just changed shape in one way or another, and lives on as a tool or a reference or a lens.

2 Stephen Berens As a resident at the American Academy in Rome, Berens made multiple exposures of the same views of the city over the course of a summer, making pictures at different times of day for a project called 40 Views of Rome, For the series here, he combined the images into dark pictures where only slivers of ruins and silhouettes of the city s ubiquitous stone pines are visible, making pictures as layered as Rome itself. Top: Stephen Berens, August 4, 2005, Night, July 28, 2005, Night (Lightning), 2013, dyebased inkjet print. Bottom: Stephen Berens, August 4, 2005, Night, July 28, 2005, Night (Lightning), July 28, 2005, Night, August 7, 2005, Night, July 29, 2005, Middle of the Night, 2013, dye-based inkjet print. COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST. COURTESY THE ARTIST. STEPHEN BERENS

3 Dawoud Bey Bey s portraits from The Birmingham Project and his picture of Barack Obama might be the most straightforward photographs in the Biennial. Clear and sober, Bey uses the camera to record the solid surfaces of his subjects, and to hint at what is solid beneath that surface. Dawoud Bey, Barack Obama, 2008, pigmented inkjet print. COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST. COURTESY STEPHEN DAITER GALLERY, CHICAGO. DAWOUD BEY.

4 Sarah Charlesworth Photography itself is the subject of Charlesworth s inverted and reversed diptych of a view camera with its bellows extended. The negative and positive images mimic the effects of the lens and the negative, making a self-referential picture that questions the act of looking, a longtime concern for the artist, who passed away unexpectedly last year. Sarah Charlesworth, Camera Work, 2009, two chromogenic prints, each mounted and laminated with lacquer frames. THE ESTATE OF SARAH CHARLESWORTH. COURTESY THE ESTATE OF SARAH CHARLESWORTH AND MACCARONE, NEW YORK. THE ESTATE OF SARAH CHARLESWORTH

5 Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst Two rows of color photographs make up Drucker and Ernst s glamorous Relationship, In the top row, a figure with long bleached-blond hair poses in heels or in a dark apartment; below, a person with short dark hair lounges in bed or wades in the ocean. The series documents the couple s gender transitions, artist Drucker from male to female and filmmaker Ernst from female to male, in images that, like gender, walk the line between documentary and performance. Installation view of Zackary Druckers and Rhys Ernst s, Relationship, COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND LUIS DE JESUS LOS ANGELES.

6 Miljohn Ruperto and Ulrik Heltoft The whimsical shapes in these rich silver gelatin prints by these artist collaborators call to mind Karl Blossfeldt s early botanical photos, but there is something unconvincing about them, despite being printed on lush fiber paper. Based on sketches and descriptions of unidentified plants from a mysterious 16th-century text, the Voynich Botanical Studies look like plants imagined by children they have leaves like little hands and tiny pineapples for flowers but were made using 3D software. Left: Miljohn Ruperto and Ulrik Heltoft, Voynich Botanical Studies, Specimen 06r Jaro, 2014, gelatin silver prints. Middle: Miljohn Ruperto and Ulrik Heltoft, Voynich Botanical Studies, Specimen 23r Podzim, 2014, gelatin silver prints. Right: Miljohn Ruperto and Ulrik Heltoft, Voynich Botanical Studies, Specimen 20v Podzim, 2014, gelatin silver prints. COLLECTION OF THE ARTISTS AND KOENIG & CLINTON, NEW YORK. COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND KOENIG & CLINTON, NEW YORK. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ULRIK HELTOLFT.

7 Carol Jackson Jackson s photo-sculpture hybrids are ornate, crust-covered shapes that are sliced open to reveal a glossy photo center. Pandemonium, 2013, is a complex shape with a skin of what looks like ash-colored mud. Where the form has been bisected, an image of burning trees is revealed, suggesting a hot core to the cool piece. Carol Jackson, Youthful Beast, 2013, wood, papier-mâché, acrylic, and inkjet print. COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST. COURTESY THE ARTIST. PHOTO: CLARE BRITT.

8 Zoe Leonard Leonard s room-size camera obscura makes the case that photography is a relevant tool for looking at the Biennial. Through a palm-sized lens set in the building s front window, Madison Avenue is projected upside down on the gallery walls, turning the museum itself into a camera. Zoe Leonard, 945 Madison Avenue (installation view), 2014, lens and darkened room. COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST. COURTESY MURRAY GUY, NEW YORK AND GALERIE GISELA CAPITAIN, COLOGNE. PHOTO: BILL ORCUTT. Copyright 2015, ARTnews Ltd, 40 W 25th Street, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y All rights reserved. Robertson, Rebecca. Photography at the Whitney Biennial: Hidden in Plain Sight. ArtNews, 6 March [online]