text and image roberto voorbij
Until the end of next week can in the Amsterdam Foam the exhibition Still Life be visited. An overview of contemporary autonomous photography in the Netherlands with still life as the central theme. One of the emerging trends seems the stretching of the concept of photography to the sculptural, the graphic, the performative, the audiovisual. The experiment is clearly the common denominator and in particular the form experiment. The emphasis on the how has however been at the expense of the what. A surprising form and well thought content (let alone engagement) are not easily in sync. One of the exceptions is the video work Color Correcting of Lernert & Sander from 2010. The brief accompanying description in itself is already hilarious: ‘Color correcting 1kg of discodip during the course of an average working day. Video, 9 hours’. The real time registration of the actual performance of nine hours together with a projection screen which has been placed at the same angle as the filmed subject, make sure you identify yourself directly with the two workers. The working method, the dull monotonous act: first sort some yellow ones, then two, three red ones, another yellow, blue, blue, blue. Boring! A strong detail is the especially for the act designed table. Which indicates that this is not a caprice, it’s daily work. The cheerful discodip is further contrasted by the impersonal white t-shirts plus a neutral gray background. And unintentional? also by the tattoos of one of the performers. Among others tattoos that spell out ‘anchor’, ‘tattoo’ and ‘temporary’. And like Robert Mitchum’s LOVE / HATE, REALNESS on the fingers. Consequently seems the above the performance hanging projector to transform into a recording CCTV camera, the cheerful multicolored discodip behind which, perhaps as well in real life hides a Fordian nightmare of monotony.
Still Life at the Amsterdam Foam runs until the 26st of October, 2011.You can watch the first five minutes of Color Correcting on the Lernert & Sander website.
Lernert & Sander – Color Correcting (2010). Video, 9 hours.
The Bleeding Tomato 