Jeff Wall
After "Invisible Man"...
Canadian artist Jeff Wall’s work of the past twenty-five years consists primarily of large-scale, color transparencies mounted in lightboxes, and, since 1995, black and white photographs. His pictures resemble both paintings and film stills, drawing the viewer into highly specific scenes that imply larger narratives.
First shown at Documenta 11, After “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, the Preface, 1999-2001, represents a well-known scene from Ellison’s classic novel. Wall’s version shows us the cellar room, “warm and full of light” in which Ellison’s narrator lives, complete with its 1,369 lightbulbs. Energy and light, stolen from the electric company, illuminate not only the character’s basement dwelling, but also the truth of his existence. He tells us, “Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form…. Without light I am not only invisible but formless as well; and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death…. The truth is the light and light is the truth.”
This large work is accompanied by a selection of smaller pictures without figures, including Rainfilled Suitcase, 2001. These pictures, which are straight photographs, complement the “cinematography” of the larger piece, and give a sense of the different aspects of Wall’s work.
As Chantal Pontbriand has written, Wall “allows us to discover who we are in light of who we are no longer. In these psychological and geographical spaces, so emblematic of contemporary life, moments of infinite solitude are felt, a solitude which redefines the meaning of community.”
Biography
Jeff Wall was born in 1946 in Vancouver, where he currently lives and works. His one-person exhibitions include Jeff Wall: Figures and Places at the Museum für moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2001), Jeff Wall: Oeuvres, 1990–1998 at the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal (1999), and Jeff Wall at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1997). His work has also been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany (2002).
A great interview with the photographer:
http://www.bridgemagazine.org/online/features/archive/000027.php