Yesterday, to fight off the heat, I went to a local exhibition space to see a photo exhibit.
The photo exhibit is titled "Le grand voyage" ("the long travel" would be a half proper translation) and is by a local artist named Martin Desilets. He studied to get a master's degree in Visual arts (1999) and has had exhibits in Montreal(Canada) and Beirut(Lebanon).
The exhibit consists of about 10 photo and a few drawings. The long travel isn't one in reality. It consists only of pictures taken in Montreal and the surrounding cities.
The artwork can be separated into 3 themes:
- Surfaces which consists of macro shots of rust and flaking paint.
- Piles which are pictures of piles of garbage.
- Observations which are drawings of birds with some comments of the relation between bird behavior and how humans work.
All images are printed on inkjet paper and taken with a digicam.
Now, for the first part, the surfaces. He shows these macro shots in very large format and compares them to the work of Duchamp (ready made) and Warhol (painting like a machine). When you first see these, it is impossible not to think how little a relationship there is between them and the work of Duchamp. If I take his view of the readymade, we can all say we are copying Duchamp since we all photograph the real world... In my sense of view, he just doesn't know anything about Duchamp's work or what a readymade is. The photos are not shocking, innovative or irreverent in any way. Now for the link to Warhol; missed again. In his way of putting it, anybody with an inkjet printer would copy Warhol (or be inspired by him in any way). The only problem I see with that is that Andy knew very well how to do perfect silk screening and perfect drawings (he was a commercial artist before becoming the painter we all know). But on his works, he always went out of his way to introduce errors in a process which is essentially foolproof. This was not the case with the series I saw yesterday. The prints were perfect but didn't move me at all (unlike Warhol's work). Besides, my Epson printer doesn't make me feel like an artist any more than my ugly white toaster. Comparing art and appliances is a step I wouldn't even attempt to make.
Then came the Piles. Perfect inkjet prints of piles of thrash and piles of new traffic cones. Thrash bags with colored pull ties, bird baths surrounded by plastic birds... But still too perfect and soul-less. No obvious composition. No subject. They look like the Polaroids a city inspector would take when there are cleanliness complaints!
The drawings were well made... though probably copied from an Audubon guide. The comments were also so... uninspired.
The only thing I really liked were the pins he used to hold the prints (they were nice and chromed, very button like). If only they had kept the prints from buckling on the wall...
All in all, I was disappointed in more ways than one. I usually like a photo exhibit where you can have an opinion about the works on display: either you love them or hate them. But in this case, I would have been ashamed to have them in my basement's broom closet! They were just bad photos. Second thing that disappointed me was the fact that you can get a Master's degree with work of such a low level. Compared to this, I had it though when I went through Management school for my Bachelor's degree. If I had presented anything so bad, I would have been kicked out. Third thing that annoyed me is that this space is open only to Professional artists. In my province, to be a professional artist, you have to make a living solely through the sales of your artwork. Up to now, he doesn't have a Curriculum Vitae that impresses me a whole lot. I don't even know anybody who would buy his photos... I thus find it quite hard to make the link between his professional status and what I saw.
But I must try to see the good point in all this. Maybe if I dug out all the pictures I don't like and had them printed big... maybe add a stupid unrelated comment to them as a bonus prize (Cracker jack box?), maybe I could become a "Professional artist" and make money out of my prints... (too bad it wouldn't sooth my ego)
I sure hope I will see better stuff come next September as it will be Montreal Photo Month (Yippie!)
