Artist Statement
This body of work seeks to reside in and thereby comment upon the liminal space of photography, that space between the document and that of the art work. I am interested in the medium of photography itself and in its representational function pointing outside of itself to an aspect of cultural narrative and memory. At the same time, I am drawn to the self-referential quality of photography that stems from the history of modernism and painting. By choosing to keep the identities of each layer in my photographs evident, balancing these in turn creates a push and pull dynamic between the content of the images and the formal aspects of color, line and texture. By layering and juxtaposing images from the protest surrounding the 2004 Republican National Conference in New York City with those of the Apollo moon mission, Joseph Albers compositions, found and acquired old photographs, as well as direct drawings, I create dialogues between each image. New contrasts old, just as hope and optimism reside simultaneously with disillusionment or apathy, and unity opposes individualism. This discourse dictates an aesthetic in which layered imagery by way of material choices approach and thereby utilize the vocabulary of abstraction. Technically, these prints are produced in the same manner as traditional print making and silk-screen where layers of ink are printed on top of the other, yet I utilize the resolution and control of digital resources. Imagery, color, ink type, and paper are carefully considered and selected to control opacity as the paper is sent through the photo printer anywhere from 3 to 8 separate times leaving behind a history of it production, time, and the artists hand. This is often not evident in the cold mechanical reproducible nature of photography and leads to varying and intensified experiences when viewing the work as multiple levels of detail emerge as one alters their distance from the work.
Website
http://rzollinger.com
