Thursday, October 23, 2008
Title: Attracted to Light
Date: 1987
Artist: Starn Twins
Fact about artists: Twins are two in one, they act as one person. Doug and Mike Starn whose exhibitions have been shown the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, among many others and have gotten attention from the modern art industry around the world. They were trained as photographers at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and began their careers as mixing photography, painting, installation and lighting in their art. Photographs are cut, discolored, reassembled, pasted or stable to the point where the photographic images became collages in which sometimes become mechanical.
Crtique:
I see a collage of photographs that make one big portrait of a moth. The separate photographs look like they're on a canvas, perhaps the outer pictures of the piece were painted. The background is blurred along with the wings while the moth's face, its legs, and some of the rocks in front of it are in focus and are seen clearly probably to emphasize that the moth is coming out of the portrait. The individual prints that are out of focus look like they're painted. Part of the moth's wings and legs seem as if the twins used wire to create them in order to convey an effect that the moth is coming towards the audience.
The layout is a bunch of individual photos placed together to make a bigger picture. It works well because the individual pictures all correspond with each other in an abstract yet concise way. The colors are black and white with a tint of sepia that really made the mothe stand out. It's black background and white body makes the image pop so you know what you're looking at. What really draws me into the piece is the moths wings. Despite it being a little blurred into the background, the part of the wings that are noticeable stand out which makes the piece more interesting. The texture of the canvas makes it look like it was just a bunch of pictures put together up close, but when looking at the piece from a distance, it becomes a very interesting moth. Perhaps the individual portraits represent our personalities and when put together make up one interesting person.
Through the title, we know that the moth is attracted to light. It seems as if the moth is about ready to take flight and perhaps go to the light. The background is all blurred because maybe it represents the past which we shouldn't dwell in therefore it's unclear, or it could stand for uncertainty for the future. The Starn Twins are known for contrasting humanism with science, so the moth could be a metaphor for humans and that when we find the light, we too will set flight to the litted path with our past behind us. Or we're beginning to set flight for the future and our futures are uncertain until we find the light that attracts us.
I think the work is successful because I find it genius using other pictures to make a whole big portrait. It's a modern style that defies the styles I've been used to seeing in museums. Art during Romanticism or Helenistic, all portraits have never been done like this. It was a new experience to actually see work like the Starn Twins up in galleries. A whole wall dedicated to one big picture which makes it interesting to look at. I would change the uneven-ness of the outside of the collage because it makes it look tacky. But looking all rough gives it a nature looking type of edge that works well with the piece.
The End.
5:24 PM
Title: Attracted to Light
