Saturday, January 23, 2010

Shadow Shot Sunday


This week's Pagan Sphinx Shadow Shot Sunday entry features my photographs of the works of Robert Taplin taken at an exhibition of his work at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams.
 Everything Real Is Imagined (After Dante) consists of nine sculptures or dioramas (a sampling of which are depicted here, each referencing scenes from Dante's Inferno as modern allegories of political strife. Taplin's story begins as Dante's does with the uncertain sense of whether or not we are in a dream or reality

Everything Real Is Imagined is part of the larger group exhibition These Days: Elegies for Modern Times 

From ArtsBoston:

George Bolster, Chris Doyle, Micah Silver, Robert Taplin, Sam Taylor-Wood and Pawel Wojtasik In 1967 Jackson Browne penned the lyric: "These days I seem to think about/ How all the changes came about my ways/ And I wonder if I'll see another highway." As the world shifts around us in ways that are profoundly disorienting, Browne's song resonates. Bringing together six artists whose work is infused with that lyric's sense of wonderment, and with the poetic and musical tradition of the elegy, These Days: Elegies for Modern Times responds to today's changing world with installations, photographs, painting, sculpture and video. The exhibition is at once an extended lamentation, but also full of a revelatory sense of possibility and hope. Opening Saturday, April 4, 2009 the exhibition features work by George Bolster, Chris Doyle, Micah Silver, Robert Taplin, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Pawel Wojtasik. Two of the artists will exhibit works from the past year while the other four have created new installations specifically for the exhibition including two room-size works: a 12' tall, 36' diameter video panorama and a full-size chapel-like environment.



 Robert Taplin 
Everything Real Is Imagined (After Dante)


(click on photos to enlarge to a better viewing size)
 

Thus My Soul Which Was Still In Flight 
(The Dark Wood)




 
Across The Dark Waters 
(The River Acheron)


 





Shadow Shot Sunday is hosted by Tracy at Hey, Harriet in Brisbane

21 comments:

  1. Although not alive, the position and movements are so real looking, the look so lifelike in form and place. The situations are lifelike, and I am not sure it is all lamentations - the look of the mundane might not be so bad: the gentleman leaving the bed to begin a day of accomplishment, or those on the boat enjoying the water on a hot day. Maybe or not - art is meant for us to see perhaps the less obvious.

    Nice post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fascinating shadow shots, Gina! Hope you're having a great weekend!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great shots in these and much to contemplate. I find it hard to know what is in the artists mind; perhaps that is the point.
    Dante is the point of reference but since I have not read the Divine Comedy I can only ponder the possible meaning of these powerful images.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marvelous photos! and a unique and wonderful idea for Shadow Shots.

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  5. I love your idea, great thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Simply fascinating...as I'm left to ponder the meaning in each work and the message there...thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. very cool!

    happy shadow shot sunday.

    paz

    ReplyDelete
  8. love these and they are all saying 'something', that being i am not sure what!

    the last one seems haunting somehow...
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  9. boatman thrusts an oar
    toward drowning man and hauls him
    aboard to safety

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sphinx, these are wonderful photos of very unusual art works. At least they are unusual to me... I don't know if I like them. I hope you don't mind... :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks to all for taking the time to leave a comment. As always it is very rewarding to get some feedback.

    Mary: I don't mind if you don't like the artwork. I don't think it's the type of art that is meant to convey beauty or happiness. Art has never been exclusively about beauty. If it makes me, I think, I like it in a very particular way. These installations were influenced by Dante's Inferno, so they are most certainly disturbing in nature. They are very well done and they made me think. I do like THAT.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great figures.

    Great photos.

    Great words from Dante.

    Cheers!
    JzB

    ReplyDelete
  13. JazzBump: I got a charge out of your profile! I'm shallow, too. Not to mention intellectually lazy. Or maybe the shallowness is a by-product of the laziness. Or maybe I'm just too much of a space cowgirl to do any better! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a fun exhibition - it makes for great shadows as well!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I think one mark of great sculpture is that it takes great photographs, with facscinating and beautiful compositions possible from every side and angle. Thanks for these - they prove my point.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This would be an amazing exhibit to attend! I'm glad you captured part of it to share with us! The one I'm most drawin to is the third one of the people sitting around the table. Hope you have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kitchen Girl, Steve and Hey Harriet:

    Thanks for coming by.

    Steve: these sculptures were brilliantly done. This was, for me, the knock-out work in the over-all exhibition called These Days.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hello Gin?

    Now your talking. Love the miniatures and they're shadows. I thought, at first for real. Silly me.

    Fascinating shot, girl. Job well done, as usual.

    Happy week and have a nice evening to you.

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete

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