Film Portrait (Incision) I
2005
John Stezaker collects postcards, movie portraits, stills and lobby cards with an archivist’s zeal. But the way in which they are re-functioned as art is not at all congruent with such an approach. One of the things that makes Stezaker’s practice so intriguing is the extent to which the works more or less follow Conceptual art orthodoxy up to when he makes his ‘cut’, bringing the two images together, after which all other decisions are intuited. The ‘idea’ of the works is straightforward and consistent, and Stezaker has constructed them in much the same way for more than 20 years: two different images are brought together, each destroyed in some important way in order to birth a new one. Yet the logic, or meaning, of the new images remains mysterious.
Written by Dan Kidner from Frieze.com
Some more Stezaker galleries at MoMa, and the Saatchi Gallery.
And here’s some art grant writing:
Through his signature use of photographic collage John Stezaker identifies mankind’s desire to portray an enhanced self and explores our acceptance or our suspicion of others’ personas and the denial of our own.
Arrrrgh. Like fingernails on chalkboard. Here’s some more of that from the Tate:
John Stezaker is fascinated by the power of images and questions the authority of pictures found in books, magazines, postcards and encyclopaedias by directly intervening into their ordinary status.
Owwwwww! Sweet pain of art-grant writing! Why do you hurt me so?