Fictions: A Poetic Vision
United by their poetic vision of a reality staged and transformed by photography, Duane Michals, Arthur Tress and Juliette Bass have come together in a group exhibition titled Fictions at Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris, France.
Each artist holds a unique approach to photography, style and visual language, yet each has woven an eccentric subject matter into their work.
Since the 1960s Michals’ work has been defined by a combination of text and photography. The American artist, who describes himself as “writer of photography”, tells stories within his photographs. Utilising found images, Michals assumes the role of a painter, manipulating their surface with collage and text to construct a new vision.
Tress’ and Bates’ images both evoke a more serious visual language. Tress uses a documentary style of photography to create dreamlike and subversive images, revealing a strangeness that he describes as “magical realism”. Bates’ series Histoires Naturelles questions the fragility of the human condition and our relationship to nature with images featuring taxidermy. The images are a strange fairytale where photography – like the art of taxidermy – attempts to preserve the passing of time.
Fictions is on display from Wednesday 23 April until Saturday 12 July 2014 at Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris, France.
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