The Grange Prize exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (September 22 2010- January 30 2011) brings together the work of Josh Brand, Kristan Horton, Moyra Davey, and Leslie Hewitt. Each artist creates photographs in a different way, addressing particular ideas, while they all share a commonality: the use or representation of objects. Visually, the work of each artist is distinct, but they all draw on the theme of objects, whether it is through the creation, the subject matter, the use, or the concept of the photograph.
Upon entering the exhibition, the first artist’s work to be viewed is that of Josh Brand. Situated in their own small area of the space, the immediate striking feature of Brand’s seven photographs is their small scale. With so many contemporary photographers presenting work at such large scales, the intimacy of Brand’s images is refreshing. The photographs, abstract in nature, present a connection between the artist and the final object. Portraying only lines and shapes, there is no sense of the involvement of a camera in the process of his work. The viewer is lead to imagine the artist in the darkroom delicately and thoughtfully creating the photographs. All chromogenic and silver gelatin prints, the images reference the tactility of traditional photographic techniques. It is unclear what objects Brand would have used to create the photographs, but it is clear that his process is a key element to the concept of his work. This uncertainty itself evokes feelings of fragmented memory, altered perception, and abstract thoughts when viewing his photographs.
The next artist to be viewed is Kristan Horton, whose work is located adjacent to Brand’s in a separate room. Of the three separate series of works, Horton’s Orbits (2009) series is the most compelling, drawing the viewer in with questions concerning the subjects the images are actually portraying. In contrast to Brand’s photographs, Horton’s Orbits are large-scale prints at 135x102 cm. Three from the series are displayed: Doorknob, Dark Center and The Original. The images portray piles of random objects photographed from above. Many of the items are indistinguishable, but one does not get the sense that the specificity of the objects is the focus of the photographs. When closely viewing the images, it can be seen that some of the objects are repeated and overlapping with each other, creating a sense of accumulation, time and space.
When entering the next room, Moyra Davey and Leslie Hewitt’s works are seen. Davey displays three separate bodies of work: a video piece, and two photographic series. The first photographic series, Copper Heads (1990), shows three magnified images of the Abraham Lincoln side of the American penny. Although each photograph is of the same object, they are all strikingly different in texture and colour, alluding to the individual ‘experience’ of each penny. Davey’s second series, The Whites of your Eyes (For Bill Horrigan) (2010), displays twenty-four photographs in a grid. The photographs themselves are of daily life, coffee cups, the newspaper, etc., but the prints have been folded and have writing and postage on them, breaking away from conventional ways of thinking about fine art photography, in terms of treating a photograph so delicately. These images have been mailed; they have been handled and damaged, but there is still a sense of preciousness to them. By folding and mailing the photographs, Davey has actually turned them into objects to be handled. Although these two bodies of work were made twenty years apart, there is a distinct connection between them; both examine the circulation of an object and the physical indications of its experiences in circulation.
Leslie Hewitt displays three photographs from her Midday Series (2009). The two most striking images are her large 132x159 cm chromogenic prints mounted in wood frames that sit on the floor of the gallery. The photographs themselves portray objects leaning against a blank white wall, which is mirrored in the way the photographs are then displayed. As noted by Hewitt, her interest in sculpture and the materiality of objects drove her to create the pieces that occupy space within the gallery. By mounting the photographs and setting them on the floor, Hewitt is turning them back into a physical object, which the viewer is then more strongly confronted by. The objects in the photographs at first seem arbitrary, but the inclusion of snapshots- most likely family snapshots, references a personal history.
Whether the nominees for the Grange Prize were chosen individually, or in conjunction with one another, their works have an undeniable connection. They all exclude the actual representation of people in their photographs, instead examining human traces left in the form of objects.
Joan Wilson studies at OCAD U
this post was added by Gabrielle Moser, her instructor
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