Exhibition tip: Charlotte Dumas - Paradis
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Warf! Régine from wmmna is blogging about dog portraits now!? She's completely lost the plot, poor girl! One sunny morning, when i was in Amsterdam, i walked by Foam, the city Museum of Photography. You know me by now: i see a photo museum, i want to get in. There were a couple of exhibitions to see, the one that blew me away for the rest of the day was Paradis, the first major retrospective of the work of Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas. Dumas makes shockingly moving portraits of animals.
It was at the Rijksakademie that she made her first series of animal portraits - five police dogs - which grew from a fascination with the portrayal of controlled aggression. In subsequent years several series emerged focusing on subjects such as police horses (Four Horses), army horses (Day is Done), wolves (Reverie), and more recently street dogs (Heart Shaped Hole). The relationship between man and animal forms a constant indirect element in her work. Dumas prefers to photograph animals with a close connection to humans and whom fulfil an important role for us: animals that have been tamed or trained by humans and which serve a particular purpose, whether in an actual task or by their appearance. Each of these animals lives in a human environment, generally in captivity. Dumas employs traditional formats, invariably placing the subject in the centre, portraying moments of concentrated calm. The psychology of portraiture plays a key role in this.
Her portraits of stray dogs depressed me beyond words but Dumas sees hope in them. If you're in Amsterdam or around, you know what you should do...
Check out the interview that Brooklyn Rail made with the artist. |
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No fotographing in FOAM, disgusting! Its a publicly funded museum.
i knooow! isn't it ridiculous? not even if you want to take a snapshot that gives a general view of the exhibition, not even if you use that picture on a blog (thus promoting them). unfortunately, it's becoming more and more frequent, it's almost the norm now. if only they had intelligent explanations for that "the artist doesn't allow photo" and you know damn well that it's not true because 1. you know the artist and 2. you were allowed to take picture of that same artwork a month before in Paris.
Wel if thats the future... I allready blacklisted SM Den Bosch and Desig Museum Breda: No Photos allowed. (Never heard of SM Den Bosch? Well thats perhaps because you are not allowed to take pictures and spread the word about the art / artist / museum on your facebook, hyves, flickr, blog whatever)
I dont understand the fear for duplicating/making free publicity. A simple picture is not the same as the work itself.
(Well for Damien Hirst (AG in Berlin) I can understand it: if too many mediocre pictures of mediocre work appear online your name/status slowly falls apart)
Desig Museum Breda is another story: they host desig... desig is all around us... They exhibit the works of Thonik for example (see http://www.thonik.com/) Why forbid duplicating/spreading these?
And for the FOAM fear: it appears to be *their* choice not the artist(s) if you saw Dumas in Paris under normal circumstances.
(Hey, an illegal FOAM/Dumas picture here: http://jackokijktkunst.web-log.nl/jackokijktkunst/2009/09/geen-fotos-in-f.html)
I too agree that the no photography policy spreading to galleries such as FOAM is completely ridiculous. Can't they see that restricting the freedom of expression of the medium they are promoting is contradictory and ironic?
I believe this is entirely about control of the image, and intended to discourage unsanctioned discourse about their content in places such as here. I don't buy a copyright or reproduction argument at all. Anyone know what the official argument for this policy at FOAM is?
I wonder if this restriction would hold up if challenged in court, as photography is a form of expression.