Photography is practically infinite. Nearly everything of light or matter can be trapped in a celluloid instant, with the best photographers catching motion and meaning from their world for the rest of us to see. Now, in exhibits like OCAT’s Follow_Me, new tools let them capture fact and fiction as never before.
Those tech-enabled shots serve as the most disturbing and engaging of the carefully curated photos on display. Launched last month and lingering through June 4, the exhibit invites us to follow the artists on very personal journeys. Where that takes us – to the moon, China’s Cultural Revolution, a Japanese motherland, a reimagined past or a symbolic fantasy – is as far-reaching and fascinating as the medium itself.
The first we encounter are David Favrod’s, with experiments in memory and manipulation. His Swiss-Japanese heritage frames the works as he literally puzzles together the pieces of his past into tidy symbols. Pulling back, Favrod also offers verdant glimpses of forests that could be from anywhere – a gesture to the some universalism.
Round the corner and Kimisa follows with a cinematic layout that’s again deeply focused on the self. In sepia and blues, her childhood haunts the photography. When we visited, screens displayed emails between the artist’s aunt and mother; sadly the wavering pixels made that chapter of her life difficult to read. Yet the photos, in unexpected angles and striking composition, speak for themselves.
Salvatore Vitale shifts the focus to the pain of a father’s disaster and the symbol of a broken moon, with impressive works in a variety of light. The “astronomy enthusiast” reached to the sky through a telescope, in one backlit and particularly striking set. Elsewhere, his pieces alternate between documentary and symbolism, though the video projects depicting the course of the night don’t carry quite the impact of his photos.
Lau Wai and Zeng Yicheng represent the Chinese world with high-intensity, close-cropped examinations of the family and self. There are many tiny details to linger on, but they lack some of the energy that strike us from the other works. Each require you to slow down and work harder to create a narrative from the slices and symbols of suffering. Anne Golaz’s complex tribute to a rough and rural Switzerland follows the same trend, with a shattering awkwardness and realism.
Realism is put to work for falsehood in the final works, includes Romain Mader’s grotesquerie of male gaze imposed on an imagined Ukrainian town of women. The candy-colored women stare back, smiling and coquettish, ready for wooing (or purchase?) as the frumpy artist searches for a bride. Is it a subversive comment on patriarchal consumerism – or more of the same?
But our greatest horror is reserved for Celine Liu’s award-winning 'I Am Everywhere.' With Appme software, she imposes her face on famous portraits in unnerving, uncanny gestures. Beside that is the Forrest Gump fiction where she Photoshops herself into historical settings. She is everywhere — she’s with Andy Warhol on a peaceful day in Tiananmen Square, with JFK in the moment before he’s shot or out cavorting with celebrities. Under the force of her multitude, the mind reels and wonders: Of all time and place, why did she choose these moments? What is real and why does it matter?
These last two are by far the most disturbing of the thoughtfully curated exhibit, but upsetting in a way that pushes the viewer to confront questions that the autobiographical photos at first seem to ignore. See for yourself and follow the artists to deeper musings about our strange and beautiful world.
Tue-Sun through June 4, 10am-5.30pm. OCT Contemporary Art Terminal. See event listing.
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