Monochromatic Vegan Dinner /  by Claudia Phares

I was part of a project where we planned a vegan dinner. We had to follow the following conditions:

  1. each had to prepare a vegan dish of a particular colour
  2. we would eat with our fingers

We were inspired by the following movies and art projects:

  • The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover (1989), by Peter Greenaway
  • Like water for chocolate (1992), by Alfonso Arau
  • 'The monochromatic diet' project of Sophie Calle

 We wanted to challenge our comfort levels by eating with our hands in front of acquaintances. There are numerous taboos surrounding food and its consumption. The fact we adapted easily to the conditions of this project showed unfortunately, no adverse effects. We mixed savoury and sweet and we still managed to keep our food in. Even though food spilling was encouraged, most of us looked very neat in the end. The food was too easy to handle and had we experimented with different consistencies, we would have ended up with different results.

On the flip side, we learned about studio lighting, filming, vegan cooking, and working in a group. I had never used Final Cut Pro before and I managed to make this short movie in a couple of hours. In retrospect, we learned while having fun.

Homage to Thomas Demand /  by Claudia Phares

Our class recreated ‘Bathroom’ from Thomas Demand using paper, foam, tape, nails, & baking paper.

Thomas Demand, Badezimmer / Bathroom, 1997, C-Print / Diasec, 160 x 122 cm, © Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

We were 17 students who worked on Thomas Demand’s ‘Bathroom’. It took us 7 hours to build it and another hour to set the lights correctly for the shoot. We shot it with a medium format camera. It was an interesting experience working together. We definitely impressed our teachers with the overall process and final product. Like Demand, we destroyed the installation at the end. The chosen image was scanned and lightly edited.

I wasn’t aware that Demand created the bathroom scene from an iconic photograph of post-war Germany: the politician Uwe Barschel found dead in a bathtub in a hotel in Geneva. His death was and remains a mystery until today.

Fake it ‘til you make it - Project 10: Thomas Demand

  1. life-size paper installation
  2. large colour print
  3. shot on 120 film with a medium format camera
  4. team work
  5. attention to detail

Homage to Jeff Wall /  by Claudia Phares

My take on Jeff Wall’s archaeological photo project.

Jeff Wall, Fieldwork. Excavation of the floor of a dwelling in the former Sto:lo nation village, Greenwood Island, Hope, B.C., August, 2003, Anthony Graesch, Dept. of Anthropology, University of California at Los Angeles, working with Riley Lewis of the Sto:lo band, 2003. Transparency in lightbox, 219.5 x 283.5 cm.
Collection of the artist. Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.

Fake it ‘til you make it - Project 9: Jeff Wall

I shot this project in the Fitzroy Gardens using my digital SLR. I was planning to superimpose 2 images. I used myself as the subject. I printed the photo on Satin Baryta tracing paper (40 x 60 cm) which I displayed on an old X-Ray light box. Just like Lorca, Wall stages his photos even though they appear candid. 
5 elements used:
  1. light box
  2. constructive narrative
  3. landscape
  4. scale
  5. post-production editing

Homage to Philip-Lorca diCorcia /  by Claudia Phares

My project was inspired by diCorcia’s series Hollywood 1990-1992 where men were sought on the street were offered to be paid to appear in a photograph.

Eddie Anderson; 21 years old, Texas; $20 by diCorcia

Fake it ‘til you make it - Project 8: Philip-Lorca di Corcia

At first glance, diCorcia’s photos look like spontaneous shots when in reality, he carefully stages his photos with electronic flashes. His images are like tableaux: they are highly contrasted which adds to the theatricality of the overall composition.

In my project, I used available light. I purposefully positioned the subjects in such a way so the light would create outlines.

5 elements used:

  1. constructed narrative
  2. reflection
  3. high contrast
  4. landscape
  5. tableau


'Louise Bourgeois:destruction of the father, reconstruction of the father' - book review /  by Claudia Phares

Louise Bourgeois holding Fillette (1968), photographed by Mapplethorpe, 1982

I just finished reading 'Louise Bourgeois: destruction of the father, reconstruction of the father'. The book consists of writings and interviews dated between 1923-1997 edited by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Most of the content is in English, some of which was translated from French by Bernadac. Accompagnying the texts are black-and-white photographs of Bourgeois’ childhood, as well as images documenting her various exhibited scupltures. There are drawings, sketches, and scanned pages of her writings.

Bourgeois kept diaries from a young age and throughout her life. She wrote in both French and English, which she mostly did during periods of insomnia. Her creative inspiration stemmed from her childhood traumas. In a few interviews she explained how by reenacting difficult childhood memories using sculpture enabled coming to terms with the experience. The same themes are explored throughout career and have become her drive to create obsessively. This book is a gem. I thoroughly enjoyed it and Louise Bourgeois is undoublty my new found inspiration.

To check out @Seventh Gallery /  by Claudia Phares

CURTIN

I dropped by Seventh Gallery yesterday to check out the new exhibition ‘Curtin’. There 10 emerging artists featured in the show. The common thread is contemporary culture. I spoke with one of the curators, Johann Rashid, whose project is displayed in the room at the far back. Rashid used a 8mm-film still which he scanned and printed. The final print has a green hue reminiscing of old found photos. It’s probably my favorite piece in the show. Rashid put together a book linked to this show of the same title. It documents the history behind the Curtin House through the eyes of 8 artists who are also currently exhibiting at Seventh Gallery. The show runs until May 14th 2011.

Homage to Thomas Struth /  by Claudia Phares

These portraits were inspired from Thomas Struth’s series on ‘Friends and Families’.

Janice Guy, Naples 1988 by Thomas Struth

Fake it ‘til you make it - Project 7: Thomas Struth

I chose the German photographer Thomas Struth because I was interested in his simple and spare portraits of families and friends. I read he collaborated with a psychoanalyst for his project on family portraits and scrutinised relationships between family members. For my project, I wanted to explore the idea of a modern family and so shot my friends, Lise & Ben, who I met through our dogs. They were shot in their own art studio (studio Pardon). I used a Mamiya medium format camera with a roll of 120 Tmax 400. I processed and printed the film in the VCA lab. I had never printed from a 120 mm film and I was really happy with the results: the tonal range of the actual print is amazing compared to the scanned version here which has lost a lot of detail.

 5 elements used:

  1. black and white film
  2. natural lighting
  3. subjects in their own surroundings
  4. intimate portraiture
  5. truth teling photography

Homage to Hiroshi Sugimoto /  by Claudia Phares

My take of Sugimoto’s stylized sculpture series

Fake it ‘til you make it - Project 6: Hiroshi Sugimoto

I chose Sugimoto because I liked the simplicity and the sharpness of his images. I wanted to emulate the high contrast found in his black and white series on the highly stylized wearable sculptures of Japanese designers. I used fabric and paper to make a costume for my dress mannequin. I shot on Kodak 400 Tri-X for 2s with one light source. Sugimoto prefers to use analogue photography and long exposures. He stated in an interview: “To be aware of the passage of time, is to be conscious of our mortality”.

5 elements used:

  1. black and white film
  2. one light source
  3. darkroom print
  4. presence of true black
  5. long exposure