The Cookie

by Celine Mikahala Grouard

You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Video Documentation

by Celine Mikahala Grouard

Michael Light gets interviewed!

I called Michael Light to interview him a few weeks back. My recording device didn't decide to kick in until about most of the way through the fourth question so here is some text-based conversation covering how it starts:

Michael started off talking about how he is working on redoing his website, and welcomes this interview as a nice break from that tedium. He asks me about the impending interview and I give him the basics (with which you are all familiar). I ask him what show he was just installing in Warsaw (he told me this in the emails preceding the interview). He said he was just installing 100 Suns, promoting old work, never resting, et cetera. I ask him what his favorite project was to date. He talked about how he likes all his projects, and can't just decide on one in particular, He says he will complete a project and grow into a different person. We go on to talk about something I've been curious about. I say I'm never satisfied with my images, and ask if he ever has the desire to change his old work. He responds with more elaboration on his previous answer, saying he never wants to change anything because he feels like a different individual, stating that, if anything, he would only change minor technical things. He says the concepts never warrant a need for change, to which I ask whether he develops images or concepts first. The audio comes in as he is talking about going out shooting, and having his ideas informed by that shooting.

Zines!

I found that website with a whole bunch of amazing zines. They are located in Copenhagen, so you can imagine all that fun stuff going... or something. Here's what they say about themselves:

ABOUT TTC GALLERY:

Since 2006 TTC Gallery has distributed, promoted and exhibited zines and artists releated to this culture.

TTC is also a creative art collective consisting of 3 members who publish graphic and photographic zines and books and make various art projects.

TTC is:
Simon Højbo Hansen
Emil Alsbo
Magnus Clausen

The website is http://www.ttcgallery.com/ so go check out some awesome publications.

Miller and Rodeen

Hrafnkell Sigurdsson

Untitled from Vivid Tents series (2000)

Hallgerdur Hallgrimsdottir: I, like others, am very fond of your Vivid Tents pictures but feel its difficult to put in words what it is that makes them so mysterious and magnificent. What is the idea behind the series?

Hrafnkell Sigurdsson: I was traveling trough Fjallabaksleid in summertime a few years ago, where I was photographing landscapes. But it wasn't until I saw a yellow tent glowing in the black dessert that I felt I had found an interesting focus. I crept up to the tent, afraid I would disturb the travelers inside, not knowing if anyone was indeed there, and took one picture. After that a process began nothing could stop. I don't really know why myself, I simply thought it extremely interesting to pair different tents with different surroundings and conditions. This series also comes right after the snow piles, which were mountains of sorts within the village and the tents are like a village on a mountain. But the tent can also represent a body in the landscape, an abstract body which the viewer can identify with.

Untitled (Mountain 4) (1998)

HH: You seem to comment on the man vs. nature or "nature and culture"
like someone put it. Why?

HS: This dualism has always appealed to me. Putting these together as separate phenomena produces a certain dynamic. Maybe I have more faith in that the dualism will dissolve and the two concepts merge together in the viewers mind, rather than showing the him how everything is intertwined into one whole. I also think these two concepts can work as a gate that
you can walk through. I don't impose my conclusion on you but invite you to enter and find your own.

HH: Transience also comes to mind; tents, snow piles and trash... Is that a correct interpretation?

HS: Yes, it must be because that's how life itself is.

HH: Why are you so drawn to the working class man, the fisherman?

HS: I was just wandering about this, because it was so unconscious. Masculine presence fascinates me and I can see how that comes from my childhood. But this is something you think about afterwards, after the work is done. Maybe it's because I come from a working class family? If my background was the world of the upper class, university education and diplomats I would be working with ties and suits? But in the end I think the reason is not that personal even though everything comes from somewhere. And if the work has these roots it they give it a certain purpose and power.
To me it's exciting to try to create a presence with these down to earth elements. A solid foundation is important if you want to build high.

Crew 1 (2006)

HH: How is it in your experience to work as an artist with fishermen and other working class heroes?

HS: People never fail to be curious and helpful. I would probably never have photographed in the junkyard if one of the truck drivers wouldn't have offered me a ride there one cold winter morning while I was photographing the garbage collectors in town on a cold winter morning.

HH: Your work is usually very beautiful, a word that seems almost off limits when art is discussed these days (at least when it comes to photography). Is that something you aspire to or is it simply something you do instinctively?

HS: If it is then it is because I can't help it, and I have tried. It's a handicap if you will :) But maybe I find it interesting because it's a little naughty.

HH: What are you working on now? Has the recession inspired you in any way?

HS: I am preparing a few projects for next year, in Russia, Britain and France. I think the recession has influenced me indirectly. I want to rethink a few things, which is very exciting, I'm exploring unknown territory ;)

HH: How does it feel to hear or read what other people have to say about your art?

HS: It's always a treat. And remarkably there is seldom any misunderstanding.

HH: What do you think about Icelandic landscape photography?

HS: It's like the landscape is not enough, as incredibly beautiful as it is. A lot of ambitious and well made photographs leave nothing behind.

HH: Do you have any good advice?

HS: Be curious, passionate and work hard.

More info an pics on:
http://www.hrafnkellsigurdsson.com

Interview with Jason Fulford

1) Your images looks like found circumstance and chance encounters

with the bizarre, portrayed in a banal way can you speak to your way

of looking at the world around you?

(see 4 and 5)

2) Do you ever re-shoot?

I'll shoot something a few different ways, but I don't go back and re-shoot.

3) I read somewhere that you compared shooting to building a

vocabulary and editing to writing. Could you say more about your

process in these terms? What do you read? How do those texts inform

your visual vocabulary and influence your work?

I'm not sure if I can analyze the influence on my work, but I can tell you

that I love when a writer takes on a serious subject with a sense of humor

-- Sergei Dovlatov, Victor Pelevin, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Lydia Davis. I

also love absurdist writers like Daniil Kharms and Robert Walser. I love

the layers in Robbe-Grillet and Perec and Thomas Mann. I love the

curiosity you feel when you read Darwin's journals. Flannery O'Connor is

in her own category.

4) From where do you draw your influences? What other mediums

influence your work?

Well, music is another big one. The Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Fall. King

Tubby. Raymond Fairchild, Japanese garage bands. Pylon, LiLiPUT, Michael

Hurley, Raymond Scott, Hasil Adkins. A few years ago I was interested in

polyphony, so Ligeti, Webern, Nancarrow. The influences all seem to

overlap in different ways. I guess if you could find those points where

they overlap, then you could analyze the effect.

5) What is the most beneficial thing you have done for your practice?

Have you made sacrifices for your practice?

I'm happiest when I'm inspired, so I travel and read. I talk to my friends

and students about their work, so there's a dialog. I eat three meals a

day. I try to use my brain in different ways

6) What do you do when you get stuck?

It's a classic crossword puzzle problem. One thing that works is to put

down whatever you're stuck on and do something else for a while, then come

back to it. If I'm stuck on some personal work, I'll stop and work on a

J&L book, or build something out of wood, or letterpress, or do a magazine

assignment, or plant something, or clean the bathroom.

7) How would your describe the affects of over-saturation of images on

art photography, for example, the internet? Do you feel this affects

you much as a working artist?

Sometimes it's a little depressing -- why does the world need any more

pictures? Then I remember how important and subtle context can be, and I

feel better about it.

8) Do you ever feel dictated by the art world?

No.

9) Do you have any advice for young artists of today?

We're all so different. I mean we all care about different things. It's

hard to generalize. I guess I'd say customize your life as much as you

can.

Jason Fulford / J&L