Tseng Kwong Chi’s Lake
Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada photograph shares the New Light On Land exhibit at the
Chrysler Museum. His black and white landscape of himself standing in the
foreground is a cynical approach to the stereotypes of Asian tourists who carry
cameras and take pictures of landscapes. In his images he stands expressionless
with a blank stare that is reminiscent of a modern-day “selfie.” Tseng has some
semiotic elements in his composition. First, he is dressed in a traditional
Chinese Mao suit, which is the Eastern counterpart to an American business
suit. Tseng traveled all over the world wearing the same suit in all of his
photographic works; it was his way of focusing on the “east meet [the] west”
way of life. Tseng was known for intentionally removing the “artistry” from his
images and focusing on an amateurish style that was common in the 1980’s club
and art scene.
Robbert Flick’s East
of Lancaster, Along Highway 14, California is a black and white composition
of frame-by-frame views of freeways from the dashboard of his car. Flick is
known for his recording of urban and rural landscapes that turn into a
filmstrip like pattern that blends with the Minimalistic views of his time. His
work reminds me of Ed Ruscha’s Nine
Swimming Pools series; they both record the world as they saw it and
produced images as fragmented views. Flick is an iconic figure in the
photography world whose main focus is on the evolutional changes in his
community.
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