Jeff Wall

Jeff WallRhyne SimpsonArt 106: Electronic Media UNC-Chapel Hill

Vancouver Artist: Background: Jeff WallBorn: Sept. 29, 1946Nationality: CanadianField: Photography, PhotoconceptualismTraining:MA in Arts History, Univ. of British Columbia (1970)Post-grad work at Courtauld Institute, London (1970-1973)Taught at University of British ColumbiaPublished essays on contemporary artists

Canadian Photographer: Jeff WallA pioneer in staged photography

Concerned with the permanent conflict of man with himself and others

Confronts social conflicts, social realities, and intercultural problems

Characters are dealing with their own inner world

Cinematographic PhotographyWall creates one-frame cinematic productions Various compositions acquired from classical paintingsComplicated productions involving casts, sets, crews, and digital postproduction Photographs require much effort and time

King-sized photographs !!!Best known for large-scale back-lit photographs

Transparencies are mounted in lightboxes

Inspired after viewing an illuminated advertisement from a bus window

Photographs average 6 by 8

Made of hundreds of individual transparencies, taken over a period of months, and placed together in a digital montage.

Themes The permanent conflict of man with himself and othersConfronts social conflicts or intercultural problemsPeople are depicted as thinking individuals, dealing with their own inner worldSilent dialogues

Cibachrome Lightboxes

Created lightboxes for over 30 years.

Some measure 10 by 16

Displayed in Museum of Modern Art

Like looking through a large window into another world

Wall has created his lightboxes for over 30 years. Some measure approximatey 10 feet by 16 feet and are displayed in the Museum of Modern Art. The experience is similar to looking through a large window into another world. 7The Destroyed Room (1978)

8The Destroyed Room (1978)

Presented at first gallery exhibition in 1978Refers to The Death of Sardanapalus (1827) by Eugene Delacroixin which the Assyrian monarch commands the destruction of his possessions.Wall recreates this violence in The Destroyed Room. The violence appears directed against a womans possessions.Mimic (1982)

10Mimic (1982)98 x 226 cm. color transparencyWhite couple walking beside an Asian manBoyfriend makes obscene gesture and slants eyes in mockery of Asian manExhibits social tensions and racial prejudiceResembles a candid shotA recreation of scene witnessed by Wall

Milk (1984)

12Milk (1984)

Explosion of milk symbolizes the mans frame of mind Vertical lines of brick contrast with tensions in the mans arm and the arc of milk. Wall: Suffering and dispossession remain at the centre of social experience.

The Storyteller (1986)

14The Storyteller (1986)

Expresses the historical crisis of Native people of Canada

Suggests Manets Dejeurner sur lherbe (1863) , which depicts a group of Parisians picnicking in a leafy glade

An image of displacement, separation, and social alienation

Refers to empty promises of technological progress

The storyteller is at the lower left, suggesting cultural traditions can survive

The Thinker (1986)

Creates a sense of infinity. Old man looks at metropolitan scene

A Sudden Gust of Wind(1993)

17A Sudden Gust of Wind

Hokusai (19th century)Jeff Wall (1993)A reinterpretation of Japanese artist Hokusais 19th century painting. Diagonal Composition (1993)

Wall also creates photographs of old, ordinary places that have been neglected. Restoration (1993)

Silver dye bleach transparency in light box; 46-7/8 x 16 ft. 7/8"Citizen (1993)

Created black and white photographs on paper in mid-1990s.

Insomnia (1994)

22Insomnia (1994)

Man, who is an actor, is suffering from an episode of insomia.Set is a replica of Walls kitchen in his studio.Open cabinet doors could represent the struggle to escape to sleep.Dead Troops Talk:A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol Near Moquor, Afghanistan, Winter (1998)

24Dead Troops Talk (1998)

A Soviet patrol ambushed in Afghanistan during war in 1980s

Merges images of horror stories with historical events of the past

Recently killed soldiers react to their state: dialogue of the dead

Each person responds different to the experience of death

Figures were photographed separately or in small groups, then assembled as montageDead Troops Talk

I wanted to involve an element of levity, but without comedy... In any group of thirteen men, three at least are going to be complete fools. So it's likely they would remain fools even after death. On the other hand, maybe they weren't fools before, and only became so once they were killed.- Jeff WallSome of the soldiers react with horror at the death of their bodies and the consequences of war. One man reflects, while the other is shocked to see his mutilated hand.After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the Preface (1999-2000)

27After Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison, The Preface (1999-2000)

Represents a scene from Ellison classic novel, The Invisible Man

Shows cellar room where Ellisons narrator lives

Illustrates the room is warm and full of light with 1,369 lightbulbsOverpass (2001)

29Overpass (2001)

Four travelers carrying luggage and bags are crossing a bridge under stormy sky

Evokes a mood of pilgrimage, both physical and emotional

No communication between people

In Front of a Nightclub (2006)

31In Front of NightClub (2006)

Young people outside a Vancouver club at night

Appears to be an accidental snapshot

Actually took weeks of costuming, set building, and lightingBoy Falling From Tree (2010)

33Boy Falls From Tree (2010)

The crooked path suggests Walls artistic undertakings

An instant of beauty before the dramatic impactContributions of Jeff Wall:Presents photography as a fine arts medium, equal to painting and sculpture

Achieved a level of artistic art unequaled by any Canadian artist.

Considers his work to be the painting of modern life.

I have always considered my work to be a mimesis of the effects of cinema and of painting (at least traditional painting), and so the fictional, formal and poetic part of it has always been very important.- Jeff Wall

ReferencesJeff Wall. (n.d.) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_WallTurner, M. (2008, Oct. 2). The Great Wall. Vancouver Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.vanmag.com/news_and_features/the_great_wallJeff Wall Photographs: 1978-2004. (2006, Jan. 8). Modern Tate. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/rooms/room1.shtmLacayo, Richard (2007, March 8). Up against Jeff Wall. Time. Retrieved from http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2007/03/08/up_against_jeff_wall_1/37References (cont.)Steven, M. (2007, Feb. 25). Remain in light. New York Art. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/arts/art/reviews/28478/Jeff Wall: The storyteller (2011, Oct. 10). Heilbrunn timeline of art history. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2006.91Shapiro, D. (2011). Jeff Wall interview. Meseo Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.museomagazine.com/938488/JEFF-WALLJeff Wall (n.d.) In The Canadian Encyclopedia online. Retrieved from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010896Jeff Wall (2007). The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved from:http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/jeff_wall/overview.html