Field Of Vision: February 2010

Friday, 26 February 2010

Simen Johan

A white stag caught in a sun-dappled snowy forest; a weary, majestic bison resting on a dusty plain; a sleuth of bears feeding from a pile of refuse; a proud llama with a Poodle-cut coat; these are just some of the majestic, mysterious creatures photographed by Simen Johan in his ongoing series Until The Kingdom Comes. Painstakingly creating each image from traditional photography (the animals are, for the most part, real, and photographed at zoos or farms) and digital techniques, Johan has fashioned a strange but believable world filled with almost mythical beasts, and devoid of humans. Did the animals finally rise up and devour homo sapiens, or is this a primitive world before man made his mark? The work is open to interpretation, and Johan is not fussed about providing an answer. He likes the unknown, and the unease that creates. Born in Norway but based in New York since 1992, his work explores our use of fantasy to try and compensate for things we can’t easily explain. As he says, “we construct meaning by necessity, allowing fantasy to shape our experience of reality. Religion is the prime example of how we create myths to alleviate fear.”

The contemporary painter Walton Ford explores similar themes, and he too has fashioned a fantastical animal kingdom in his work, but Johan’s chosen medium and the sheer believability of his photographs makes them that much more sinister and powerful. Looking at his images, the viewer senses something is amiss and feels they aren’t real, but its hard to pinpoint exactly why they’re not. In the few unmapped wildernesses still left on the Earth, perhaps there are majestic animals such as this still ruling their lands.

Untitled, from the series Until The Kingdom Comes

Untitled, from the series Evidence Of Things Unseen

Untitled, from the series Until The Kingdom Comes

Untitled, from the series Evidence Of Things Unseen

Untitled, from the series Until The Kingdom Comes

All images © Simen Johan

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Eugene Andolsek

Eugene Andolsek was an American stenographer, who, to escape the humdrum existence of his daily life, created dazzling, complex drawings in his spare time whilst in a trance-like state. Untrained as an artist and working from a kitchen table in a house he shared with his troubled, ailing mother, Andolsek worked on simple graph paper with nothing more than a straight edge, a pair of compasses and coloured inks which he mixed himself, to wild effect.

Unhappy and disillusioned with his job for Rock Island Railroad, starting in the 1950s Andolsek would unwind after work by drawing complicated patterns in black ink, then colouring in the resulting shapes. The release was cathartic and pretty soon he was getting lost in the intricacies of his work and the geometric worlds he created, drawing and colouring for hours on end in a trance. He didn’t consider what he was making as ‘art’ and once each image was finished he would stash it away in a drawer or cupboard. Like many other Outsider artists, he was driven by an inner urge to draw, and it was the act itself rather than the finished work that compelled him to create. It was only in later life when failing health and poor eyesight forced him to seek help that a careworker saw his drawings and realised Andolsek’s was a unique, unknown talent.

At first glance nowadays these images appear to be computer generated, and nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary, but the fact that they were made by one man’s hand with simple tools up to 60 years ago only makes them all the more incredible. As with so many images shown on F O V, click on the thumbnails to see them in better detail and appreciate the craft and vision of this strange, gifted artist, who passed away in 2008.

Untitled (296c)

Untitled (352c)

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Untitled (162c)

Untitled (344c)

Untitled (300c)

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Untitled (354c)

All images © Estate of Eugene Andolsek/American Primitive Gallery

Thursday, 11 February 2010

Elad Lassry

Born in Tel Aviv in 1977 but now resident in Los Angeles, Elad Lassry’s work continues the rich tradition of photo-led Conceptual art. Working with both found imagery from vintage magazines such as Life and Time, and his own slightly unnerving photographs, Lassry displays his images in frames (often sickly coloured) which are as important as the images themselves, since they immediately remove the photographs from any editorial context and make them singular, powerful pieces. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s old and what’s new imagery, since he shoots his own photographs like cheesy promotional headshots or outtakes from early computing manuals. "I'm fascinated by the collapse of histories," says Lassry. "And the confusion that results when there is something just slightly wrong in a photograph."

With his collaged film-still compositions he owes a serious debt to John Baldessari, but for such a young artist he has created a distinctive signature style of his own, which becomes all the more apparent in the photographs he actually shoots. Whether it’s through the choice of strange subject matter or the weird compositions, with those distinctive frames you know you’re looking at a Lassry.

Lipstick, 2009

Red Cross, 2008

Two Wolves, 2008

Yellow Plinth, Wave Length, 2008

Angela Ledgerwood, 2009

Wall, 2008

Untitled (Herend), 2009

Blue Cross, 2009

Woman In A Pool, 2009

Red Cabbage, 2008

Woman, paperclips, Woman, pencils, 2009

Laminated Structure (For Her and Him), 2009

The Many Moods and Meanings in a Woman's Face, 2007

Eagle Glove, Falcon, 2008

Portrait, Navy Blue, 2008

Wolf (Blue), 2008

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Akira Yamaguchi

A fascination with cutting-edge technology coupled with a deep, almost sacred reverence for centuries’ old traditions is one of the most fascinating facets of contemporary Japanese culture, and its not something that its necessarily easy to convey through art. Over the last ten years or so, Akira Yamaguchi has crafted strange, often complex paintings, which pay homage to masters like Hokusai and Hiroshige whilst being modern and strikingly original. A talented draftsman and painter, he uses traditional techniques whilst littering his work with weird technology and machinery. The works veer from simple, fun, almost Manga-esque ideas, such as a skeleton riding a jet-powered surfboard, to densely layered imagined cityscapes (with an almost never-ending level of detail) which he paints on vast canvases. Hiroo Roppongi and Mitsukoshi, shown below, measure 2&1/2 metres across and are hard to admire on a computer screen, so click on the thumbnails to view them as large as possible.