Uta Barth’s work questions traditional functions of photography, by using the blur she channels Julia Margret Cameron whom used the blur to focus on the spiritual elements. Barth changes our perception of what we are looking at. The imagery is so generic and commonplace, scenes of living room walls and street corners fields and trees, they could be anywhere, taken by anyone. Yet it is the way she photographs them that sets them apart. Her work is visually almost empty. She focuses on the unoccupied foreground space to emphasize the photographs as containers for light and color.
I find this work so inspiring as I move deeper into my own conceptual work. Her colors are muted yet so rich at the same time. The purity that encompasses her work has a distinct calming effect. In my work i hope to accomplish quite the opposite, I hope to use her as a platform to create works that make the viewer uneasy and question something that they see probably everyday on the television.
http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artist.php?art_name=Uta%20Barth
Hi:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interest in my work. Julia Margaret Cameron is the furthest reference for my work. She is after a certain romanticism and pictorialism which is of no interest to me. My work is about perception and influenced by artist like Robert Irwin, the Light and Space movement, minimalism, John Cage, Brian Eno, Turner etc. The primary practice is always to remove the central subject to lead the viewer to his or her own perceptual experience. "Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing you are looking at" s the title of a biography on Robert Irwin (you should read it) it comes from a Zen text. It is the closest way to describe what I am interested in.
By the way, the second image you posted is not mine.
Just some thoughts to share to think about.
Thanks again and I hope it helps to understand the work and maybe your own work as well,
All best,
Uta Bart
Sorry Shannon, I should have signed in with my other account so you know it is from me.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your own work and again, many thanks for being interested in mine.
Uta Barth
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on my post! I really appreciate all of it. I rented that book from the library and am excited to read it. I also edited out that second image.
ReplyDeleteIt did help thank you again for commenting. I mentioned Cameron simply because for me aesthetically your work has somewhat of a romantic quality but I do understand how drastically different your work is from hers.
Thank you again for your very helpful comments.
-Shannon Crooks