Olivo Barbieri began taking photographs in 1971, and his interest in the urban sprawl emerged early on - his first major body of work showed the glow of artificial lighting emanating from European and Asian cities. In 1999 he developed what would become a signature style, using a large format camera, plus the tilt-shift process to manipulate focus and perspective, rendering aerial views of cities and landscapes into what appeared to be miniature models. The already highly artificial fa?ade of Las Vegas became even more exaggerated, the skyscrapers of New York were rendered quaint rather than imposing, and the Iguazu Falls became a picturesque microcosm. Barbieri continued in this fashion until about 2008, when his own artistic focus began to shift.
"At first I was interested in the transformation of bits of cities into plastic models. It's a virtual process to bring into question their planning," he says. "Then I decided to go beyond - to start from the drawing, the planning." This new approach became a way to comprehend the exponential growth of urban centres, and to extrapolate forward to the future. "The purpose of this work is to go forward, to understand what will happen to the future of cities," he says. "Over the next 20 years it will be very interesting to see how they will cope with the amount of people they contain."
Viewing cities from above still affords Barbieri a unique perspective, however, and it's an approach he's still fascinated with. "It is a completely different view from the air - you can understand the real shape and size of a building," he says. "Florence, for example, is fantastic from the ground, but from above it looks like a broken theatre. When you go up in the air you don't so much see the meaning of a place, its context, but shapes, which give you a fresh understanding."
Barbieri shot site specific_LONDON 12 in early summer, before the Olympic Games began - just like he worked in Turin, shortly before the 2006 Winter Olympics. He enjoys photographing Olympic building projects because he likes to witness historical transformation in process, he says, but he's also interested in London because of its intriguing mix of old and new. This interest is evident in the 12 images he chose to include in the series, which record historic sites old and new - from St Paul's and Tower Bridge to the Shard and the Olympic Stadium. Barbieri researched artists past and present to choose his locations, and says Pink Floyd's classic album cover, from the 1977 release Animals, was the inspiration for shooting the Battersea Power Station.
Site specific_London 12 is a mix of monochrome and vibrantly coloured images, but Barbieri worked on all the shots for a long time in post-production, developing a visual language for the series. "I try to define the image's attractive points, like in a written page," he says.
Each image is meant to act independently but also function as part of a wider whole that is more than the sum of its parts. "The challenge is to succeed in building a story that perceptually discloses hic et nunc the location; then to relate it to other locations in order to draw a bigger picture that describes the shape of the contemporary city," explains Barbieri.
The result is a set of images that hardly resemble photographs - perhaps appropriate for Barbieri, who views photography as more than just a means to an end. Other photographers might lament the end of the ‘golden age' of photography, but he embraces its progress, and says the proliferation of photographs and photographers has made the confusion between photography and art much clearer. "It is much easier to understand what an artist using photography is doing," he says. "You don't have to prove that it relates to photography and artists can concentrate more on their work."
Londoners are now able to see their city through Barbieri's eyes, with large prints of the series on show at the Ronchini Gallery until mid-January. Barbieri hopes his images will allow locals to discover something new about their hometown, and in turn provoke questions about the nature of perception and the photographer's role in it. "We're not moving away from photography, it's photography that's leaving us," he says. "I've never been interested in photography, but in images. I believe my work starts when photography ends."
If the Farnsworth is awarded the grant — a decision will be made in July — the museum will offer Regional School Unit 13 teachers who teach in Rockland free year-round professional development opportunities in aesthetic education. Specifically, teachers at Rockland District Middle School and the South School will help students connect curriculum with art.
Past and current work between the museum and school have been a great benefit to students, said elementary school teacher Nancy Nickerson of the South School.
The current project has included giving each student a camera and allowing them to take photographs. Each classroom has a different focus including marine shipping and lobstering, the granite industry or as with Nickerson’s class — documenting family history.
“They’re learning the lost art of talking with their elders,” Nickerson said.
She said the project allows the children to do things that get them to believe in themselves.
The Rockland City Council gave its enthusiastic support for the grant at its Dec. 10 meeting. The council voted unanimously to support and partner with the museum on the grant application to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Roger Dell, the director of education for the Farnsworth, said the relationship with the schools has been a great fit.
“Math includes geometry which is about patterns, and that is found within art,” Dell said. “Any topic can find a connection in the art world.”
He said students also can examine paintings and analyze it and investigate its meaning. Investigation is a key to the study of science and math, Dell said.
The project also will focus specifically on the history of Rockland through a study of occupations such as lobstering, granite and limestone quarrying.
“In close collaboration, the museum and the teachers will develop a broad curricular project in which students explore and document Rockland’s history and local environment,” according to a letter from the Farnsworth’s development officer Kit Stone to the city council.
Museum educators, assisted by professional artist mentors, will spend several days a week throughout the school year demonstrating to teachers a variety of teaching-through-the-arts strategies by directly interacting with students and guiding their creative choices, where they may choose among photography, film, music, literature or the fine arts as their creative tool.
Students will also be brought to the museum free of charge for docent-led tours and hands-on gallery activities to reinforce and enhance what they learned in the classroom. The museum will also pay for transportation costs for the students.
At the end of each of the next three school years, the students work would be presented to the public at the historic Strand Theatre in downtown Rockland and then put on display in Farnsworth galleries. Video and film creations will be shown at the Farnsworth auditorium.
That was done in the past year with films shown at the museum and exhibits on display for the public.
In its statement in support of the Farnsworth grant, which is being submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, Mayor William Clayton stated that the city is proud to have a world-class museum such as the Farnsworth in Rockland.
No comments:
Post a Comment