Observations on the Works of Stephanie Robbins—Guest Speaker at UNH

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP Arts 651 Fall 2010

 

Ms. Robbins describes her work as installations of “present reality vs. past memory” using images, sounds, and experiences.

A strong influence to her work is the relationship lost of her mother, who died in a car accident. Stephanie was only 8 years old at the time, and so only knows her mother through images and stories told. This apparently became an inspiration for her works.

She expresses that family had influence on her identity, and that her idea of “home” became a documentation of events and people. She was influenced by Alan Caparo (Kaprow?), a 50s and 60s photographer of art and life together.

Her installations show different rooms of a home, simultaneously.

She explains that she regards her work as “phototherapy”—art and photography to affect feelings. The idea is to elicit feelings from different people, and thus different reactions to an image based on their own life experiences.

She shows other artists’ examples such as object and copy as art—a book with her story and others’ in one book. She also shows a video of what is referred to as “audio walks” which uses space, sound, music, and a walking soundtrack, though I wasn’t sure if she was speaking of her own work as well. The soundtracks are like a movie—telling a story while walking with all the sounds heard around the person walking (e.g., footsteps, traffic, people’s voices passing by). I liked this idea, but don’t know when it was done, and had the recollection that I had seen this idea used by other artists as well, thus losing some integrity.

During Ms. Robbins’ undergrad work, she thought more about narrative—using color to express emotion shown on face in each image (e.g., red for anger; green for envy, etc.). This evolved into collage work—boxes of images, each with primary colors in each boxed and/or framed images. She believes in using many images to tell a story. She also used audio to go with images. Here again, I liked the idea, but upon hearing the audio I felt that the images of houses didn’t go with the audio of a phone conversation of a one-sided argument—only one person’s voice is heard. Although, the house image certainly has a strong association with family, good or bad.

Robin believes “we want to know about OTHER peoples’ lives.” In another installation she has one story per photograph, and each photo uses a barcode to activate the corresponding story/audio for a particular image.

One project leads to another. She finds old photos, then records opinions (from strangers) of what they think is happening in the photo that she shows them. I found this aspect of her work intriguing, as far as how people communicate, and interpret what they see, and why they believe what they do. The voices and how each person expressed their ideas really enhanced the interest level of this type of “show and tell”. She used these audios for different types of spaces, as an installation where a photo would be displayed with a headset at each different photo on a wall. Perspectives were recorded for each image. The intent is to trigger your own memories/thoughts of “what was” or “what could have been”. She then tried using images to trigger memories without sound; and used sound with no image. Examples were “family rooms” with sound and totally dark rooms with voices describing a family member.

One installation was a room with a table and two chairs, and a checkers game board display. She used old and new recordings of herself and her father talking while playing checkers. Participants are to sit at the installation/table and try to play while listening to the audio of the conversations between herself and her father. If sitting at her side of the table, her father’s voice is more prominent. If sitting at her father’s side, then her voice is more prominent. I thought this idea was clever, but perhaps too personal to engage those visiting the exhibit.

This led to an installation using different squares of floor covering to represent each room in a house. Audios at each square of flooring describe the appearance of the room, and what transpires there. I liked this idea a lot, as there are certainly different types of conversations that may take place in one room, but would never take place in another room of a house. And the different floor coverings are a great way to lead the action from one “room” to another by association of the material with the room—linoleum/kitchen, rug/living room, etc.

Ms. Robbins then used the same idea, only with images of two separate homes, and the front steps and/or walkway of each—demonstrating space both physical and cultural. What she refers to as her “POD” pieces equal a trilogy.

All her works are about memories and family, whether hers or that of a stranger. It was interesting to see the ways her work evolved, and the way in which her interactive installations could elicit an action, or reaction. Though her works may be about memories and family, her audiences’ reactions must be more about human nature. I believe interactive art has a tendency to do that.

Jane Sydney Photographs of Dunes, et al



Death Valley Blue Dune 2
by Jane Sydney



 

The room is referred to as the “Meditation Room”, and is located in the Wentworth Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire. It is a quiet, little room that patients and loved ones go, most often to grieve.

The room is very simply decorated—a small, almost dimly lit rectangle with a dark, non-descript carpet; four matching chairs; a glass bookcase; a large, green, fake plant in one corner; and some pseudo pink and white orchids situated on a narrow, yellow shelf that protrudes from one wall.

On all four walls, are a series of abstract photographs of sand dunes, taken by Ms. Sydney. All the photographs are landscape, 8 x 10-inch images, neatly framed with a neutral mat and a soft gold, wooden frame.

Moving from left to right, at about eye level, is the first photograph (Death Valley—blue dune 2). The dunes have a soft look, and the colors are shades of blue, and violet—so subtle a change from one to the next. Only in the foreground, can the viewer see the windswept pattern on the sand, like ripples in water—the only hint that one is looking at an actual photograph. Otherwise, the image looks much like a water color of soft, sloping lines blending together. I couldn’t help but associate its appearance with a Georgia O’Keefe painting.

The next image appears to have been taken in the same spot, only from more of a distance (Death Valley—blue dune 1). Narrow ripples show in the foreground again; however, this perspective makes the dunes more recognizable, yet it is very similar to the first photo—soft blue and violet slopes mixed with warm tones from the sunlight reflecting off the sand.

The third image of dunes is similar—still abstract (name?). There are valleys of sunlight on slopes to the left side of the frame, while shadows of other dunes to the right balance the composition, bringing the eye left to right, and back. Ripples in the foreground are seen again, and bring the eye into the background as well. It’s like a slow waltz for the eyes.

With the next image comes a bit of a surprise. In golden tones from sunlight and shadows there sits a tumbleweed, not quite dead center, in the foreground. This time rippled patterns in the sandy slopes all run to it. And low vegetation and stones seem to have come to greet it, creating a semi-circle in front of it. The sunlight highlights its warm, golden “hair”, and gives a nice contrast with the texture of the sand.

The theme continues around the room—each similar, yet very unique. One of the prints appears iridescent, with shades of shimmering peacock blues, greens, yellows, and brown. This one was perhaps manipulated a bit, and one can actually see the texture of the silver on the paper.

Another image appears like the smooth (yet flat) lower backside of a nude (Death Valley Shadow Play). The tones are soft and almost flesh toned. And the shading is exaggerated, perhaps to make for more dramatic lighting, to better define the shapes of the dunes as one body.

All of the images have a calm feeling with their smoothness and mostly warm tones. There seems to be no beginning or end within each composition. Could this be their intended message for this room?

Two more photos reside, one above the other, by the doorway to this room. One is an image of heavy, rustic doors, with cross cutouts in each—an entry way for a chapel perhaps. Warm gold light emanates through the cross of the door on the left, and a brighter, white light comes through the cross cutout on the right. Strangely, a large, heavy looking chain has been pulled through each door, and padlocked, yet the doors don’t quite meet—they are ajar. A warm, golden light shines between them, and within, the facing wall has some sort of large printed words, indicating importance.

Below this image is one of a cool colored, blue-green architectural exterior, with a recessed archway for a window. Corinthian relief columns to the side of the window flank a graceful female statue, with a long fitted, draping dress. One of her arms is up, with her hand almost to her heart, as if offering an expression of sympathy to the viewer. Through the window glows a warm, yellow light.

As I sit writing my notes, I notice a leather-bound book on the table beside me. Embossed on its cover are the words “Trust in the Lord”. I decide to open it, and read an entry written by someone’s grieving sister, and start to cry.

Van Dyke Process, Before and After

Here are the last two. (Again, I feel the need to apologize for the poor photography of the final product.)

 

I feel I had quite a few technical difficulties with this project, since I've observed some of the more successful Van Dykes from other students in the class. I can see that it's not just the original image that matters, but so much more--Photoshop negative printout vs. a 35mm negative reproduction; paper used, condition of solution, coverage of solution onto paper, exposure time, and fix. Oh, and I hate to say it, but size DOES matter in this instance. ;-)

Van Dyke Process, More Before and After

Yes...yet another. Hey, what do you want?  I only had one day after work to take these shots before sun down. As it was, I had to get out of work early to do so. I concentrated on these old buildings that I thought would work well for this process. It was really difficult to keep the detail (not that the originals were all that great, since they were digital, and not film, taken with a simple little Canon Power Shot camera). Also, expertise in Photoshop would have helped to sharpen these up.

And speaking of Photoshop... I don't have it here at home...otherwise I would have cropped this photo I took of the final product. I wanted the close-up, because I made these prints rather small. However, perhaps you can see that I mounted this as a float on a dark brown cork board for display purposes at school. Umm. Yeah, the sunlight got in the way. Ugh. Also, notice the paper looks blotchy. That is probably because the paper was not coated evenly, with the Van Dyke developing solution, beforehand.

Van Dyke Project--Before and After

 

So, here is an old barn... again. This is a fairly sharp color photo I took during sunset hours. And below, as you can see, is the same print using the Van Dyke process. Now the barn looks REALLY old! Or... at least the image does. I like the antiquated look the Van Dyke process gives. Again, however, I've not been able to take a good photo of the finished product.

I found the most difficult part of printing to be with paper coating, and fixing time. Ideally it would be nice to keep the detail (in the wood of the barn, for instance), but I must have been doing something wrong. There's a lot of trial and error involved, in my opinion--the condition of the solution, how well the paper is coated, the paper texture, exposure to the light, and how long the image is in the fix. It's, dare I say, exhausting!





Meant to say...

The Van Dyke images shown here were just a trial run. New and improved images to come (well, let's hope so!).

Van Dyke Project #3

This one, uh... not so great. I used a large format negative for this one. This particular image convinced me that I need to go out and purchase some hot press, smooth, paper for a better result. This is way too fuzzy, and looks out of focus--the original negative is not. Off to shop!