The two Dutch artists recommended by my tutor, Berdnaut Smide and Jan Dibbetts, are both new to me. In the context of the work that I have done for this first assignment I think the former is more interesting and relevant.
Dibbets’s geometrical collage approach is certainly striking and I can see some contexts in which I might want to experiment with this sort of form.
For the present cloud/skyscape series though I struggle to see how it might be applied constructively.
Smide’s work, which at least in its static forms has some similarities with Judy Chicago’s smoke photos that I have written about briefly separately, but what I find more intriguing is his dynamic, video based work.
This was one of the influences for exploring the possibility of some sort of slideshow presentation, as discussed in my last post. I have no idea how he achieves this effect but clearly as it is video based it is potentially more successful as it avoids any sense of discontinuity which I fear is always going to be an inherent problem with any progression of still images.
I have kept what I hoped would be the best tip last, the interview with Hiroshi Sugimoto. I have to say though that I am a bit disappointed. I find this interview rather shallow, no doubt as a result of limited space and enforced brevity, and rather disjointed, so that it does not really do justice to any of the varied strands of his work. The references to spirituality in general and Buddhism in particular are unfortunately too superficial to add much that is useful to my understanding of Sugimoto’s work from this point of view.
What I did find interesting though is his observation on black and white photography, that it is the best medium to show “the tonality of darkness to light”, which is a view I share, and which perhaps goes to explain why so much of the work in my library of photobooks and the prints that I have collected are in black and white.
https://baltic.art/whats-on/judy-chicago
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/interview-with-hiroshi-su_b_8924692
https://www.peterfreemaninc.com/exhibitions/jan-dibbets2?view=slider#6
Mark Robinson's OCA Landscape, Place & Environment Blog 