Sarah Barr at AIB: 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Pope Binder

In the fall of 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Ireland and the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Des Moines, and Washington, D.C. in the United States. It was the first papal visit to Philadelphia and there was great excitement in the Catholic community here. The Pope celebrated an outdoor mass at Logan Square for approximately one million people; I was very excited to be in attendance with my friend Marie and her family.

Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting Philadelphia in 2015 for the World Meeting of Families. I can't imagine him being greeted by hundreds of thousands of people and a ticker-tape parade. We'll see.

For Pope John Paul II's visit, my sister Mary and her friend Cathy worked on an eighth-grade school project to document the event (and won second prize).

Initially I photographed the full view of the binder with some of the floor showing but decided that a partial view more accurately described the incompleteness of memory (and photography). For example, my sister and I can't remember whose "Admit One" pass is included - possibly mine or perhaps someone in her friend's family - or what the cover used to say. My strongest memories of the Pope's "pilgrimage of peace" is watching the sign language interpreter during the ceremony (my friend Marie's parents are deaf so we sat in a dedicated section), and learning to sign prayers and "I want ice cream".

The closer views also allow for a better appreciation of the framing made by my sister and her friend using construction paper and colored pencils. And, as with the tape remnants in the scrapbook, I'm drawn to the binder's center and its attempt to hold things together. Although I'm not sure what was available to them, my sister and her friend seemed drawn to images of women and children (and the Pope, of course).

Monday, November 5, 2012

Eileen Neff and Margaret Livingstone

I went to Eileen Neff's solo exhibit, Three or Four Clouds, at Bridgette Mayer Gallery last week. This was a great show to see as I am thinking about how to exhibit my current project and Neff's work is, in part, concerned with how her photographs are displayed.

Below, three images of Bird and Tree (2012) are installed using different framing methods. Slightly to the left is Still Life (2012). The gallery's press release states that Neff's exhibit "brings focus to the conflating of her experiences in the studio with those conditions at work in the gallery." I imagine the artist in her studio (on the 29th floor) contemplating how each framing device works with the photograph (possibly trying to choose just one) and being continuously distracted by a bird in her peripheral vision.

Perhaps the lecture I attended the night before influenced my response to Neff's work. In neuro-physiologist Margaret Livingstone's talk at the University of Pennsylvania, "What Art Can Tell Us About the Brain", the importance of peripheral vision in viewing art was demonstrated. Livingstone used the Mona Lisa's elusive expression as one example, pointing out that when you look at her eyes with your central vision she seems to be smiling more in your peripheral vision. When you switch your attention to her mouth the smile diminishes.

When looking at Neff's Blue I and Blue II, two large C-prints mounted on Plexi (51 x 76.5"), I was reminded of Livingstone's exercise in which she asked her audience to notice how a patch of purple disappeared in the upper left hand corner as we focused our gaze on a + in the lower right hand corner. Livingstone stated, "when we focus on one area, the other areas fade and shift back when you look in a new place. Science calls this optical, Rothko called it mystical."

Blue I and Blue II were placed at the base of two walls five feet or so across from each other, so the viewer was unable to step back and have the entire image in view - spacing reminiscent of Rothko's desired vantage point for his paintings.

Neff's work is clean, professional and playful. There are often photographs within photographs.

In Here and There, trompe l'oeil is in play. At first glance, the viewer thinks there is an alcove in the gallery's wall. Here Neff has photographed items from her studio in her studio, some of which are part of the exhibit. This includes a red dot sticker used in galleries to mark a sale but used by Neff to track the movement of the sun across her studio wall.

Cloud Postcards may be my favorite from the exhibit. It was incredibly difficult not to pick up one of these cards. The retail postcard set up, made for shoppers to pickup and handle the merchandise, does not operate the same in a gallery. Permissions have changed. It reminded me of discussions during the last residency about my memorial cards. Viewers were unsure about picking up the cards until they were labeled with a "Suggested Donation" sign.

A catalog for Three or Four Clouds with an essay written by Helen Westgeest will be available through Bridgette Mayer Gallery at the end of November. If you call 215 413 8893 and leave your email address they will notify you when it is available.

Here's a link to Margaret Livingstone's book Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Microfilm

I contacted the Philadelphia Archdiocese Archives looking for letters sent from bishops or archbishops to parish priests to be read to their congregations. After I clarified that I wanted public letters not private (those are not released for 70 years after their creation), the archivist thought my best bet was to search The Catholic Standard and Times.

The Catholic Standard and Times was a weekly newspaper produced by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for 117 years. Because of budget cuts, it was closed and the last issue was published in June 2012. It's website counterpart continues at CatholicPhilly.com.

The archivist suggested flipping through the bound volumes of the newspaper but I requested the microfilm instead.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Susan Hiller and Jane and Louise Wilson

Here's the beginning of my September research paper:

Susan Hiller (American, b. 1940) and twin sisters Jane and Louise Wilson (British, b. 1967) make work that preserves the memories of forgotten histories. Much of Hiller’s work includes text, signage or sound that describes people who are unseen; making their absence profound. Jane and Louise Wilson often document an institution, populating the site for their videos with reenactments.

My approach to my work is more in line with Susan Hiller's efforts in The J Street Project to make images that show "everydayness," using existing lighting without any manipulation. The idea is to allow a cooler reading of the subject matter so the audience can have their own reactions as opposed to the Wilsons more theatrical productions.

So in an effort to emulate Hiller and get the creative twin vibe of the Wilsons, I returned to my college to do research with my twin sister. She humored me by walking around the campus talking about my work and her writing. (She did not indulge me by speaking in a British accent - at least not for too long).

Unfortunately, the trip didn't yield any useful research but I was able to get this image:

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

More Scrapbook and Holy Cards

I've photographed fifteen pages from my childhood scrapbook with a large format camera. Five negatives have been scanned. Below Page 8 is displayed with its inverse, similar to how the Shroud of Turin is displayed. These are 11"x14" when printed. I find my eyes searching for something representational - a topic I'm working with currently.

I'm continuing to work with the holy card format (4"x 2.4"). These were available for a suggested donation of 25 cents at the last residency and have been well received. Below is the front then back of the card. For the reverse side in this set, I'm using images of the backs of holy cards from my childhood instead of text.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Constructed Attic: Option One

The attic is placed on a stand above the viewer's eye level. Mirrors have been taped to the underside of the rafters. One-way glass panes are leaning against the outside of the rafters. On the bottom an iPad plays video footage from the church before its demolition. Still figuring out lighting and video issues.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Constructed Attic and More Scrapbook

Below are photos of an attic I'm working on. The dimensions are roughly 23" x 18" x 12". I've purchased mirror for the bottom and 1/2" x 12" mirror strips for the underside of the rafters. Still deciding whether to paint or stain the wood or leave it as is. I may use it in photographs, or as an infinity box, or to hold an ipad playing a nine-minute video of a walk-through of the demolished church. Now to hunt down some mirror adhesive.

Below are more photographs of my childhood scrapbook. This time I photographed them with light coming through the back.


Roll 22, 22 © 2012 Sarah Barr

Friday, April 13, 2012

Scrapbook

The following photographs are from my childhood scrapbook, an archive. Although the archive was constructed to help memory, the specific records have fallen away not through any force but with the passage of time, leaving traces where tape once held mementos collected during elementary school. Stains left from items on the previous facing page and marks bled through the back of the page have accumulated on one plane; their chronology distorted. Distinct memories may be lost, nevertheless some trace of them is marked on the subconscious.