| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Art Reviews |
Spring 2002 |
Photographs: two shows, two ideas
The two photographic exhibits reviewed here are part of CONTACT 02, the 6th annual Toronto Photography
Festival. There are more than 150 exhibits and events taking place throughout the city
from May 1 to 31, 2002.
William Wegman: Fashion Photographs runs at the AGO to July 28.
Berlin-Toronto photographs at the Goethe Institute to July 6.
By Alidė Kohlhaas
Just how to describe the current show at the Art Gallery of Ontario is open to discussion. William Wegman certainly exhibits playfulness, wit, irony, maybe a touch of cynicism, in his multi-faceted exhibition of photographs, collage watercolours, drawings, and videos. There is, however, considerable dark humor and violence in his work, although this may not be intentional, and there is some irrelevancy.
Wegman has become famous for his "Fashion Photographs" of his Weimeraner dogs. It all began sometime in the late 1960s or ''70s (the biography is not clear on this) when he made videos and took photographs of his first Weimeraner, Man Ray. Of course, the dog's name suggests instant images of that great experimenter in early photography, Man Ray (1890-1976), whose association with Dadaism and other 20th century art forms has made him renowned around the world.
Man Ray, the dog, was spared being dressed up and turned into some kind of anthropomorphic creature. The dressed-up dog period did not start until Wegman acquired Fay Ray, his second Weimeraner. He writes: "Perhaps it was her femininity. We came to the mutual realization that she had a desire to be observed."
Most of the slides shown on this site do not do justice to his photographs, so one apologizes in advance. The originals displayed at the AGO are taken with a poster-size Polaroid camera that resembles those huge, early box cameras from the era when the 19th century turned into the 20th. Working these monster Polaroids in itself takes considerable skill. But, what makes his shots so special is the manner . . .
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