Home
GALLERIES
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
ABOUT
CONTACT
EXHIBITIONS
CATALOGUE ESSAY
NEW ABSTRACT ARTIST'S STATEMENT
ABSTRACTS
PORTRAITS
DISTILLED LIFE
<span class="text"><font color="#eeeeee" class="text"> <style> <!-- .encloser { text-align: left; } .encloser th { text-align: left; } .encloser td { text-align: left; } .encloser caption { text-align: left; } --> </style> <span class="encloser"> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p> <p style="text-align: center"> <font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 20px"><strong>Photographic Phrases: Abstraction in the work of Carl Berg</strong></span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"> <font face="Times New Roman"><strong>By Katherine Newbegin</strong></font></p> <p> <font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">All photography is abstraction in the sense that it can only capture the very skin of</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">the thing and not its essence.</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">1 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman">In his current body of work Carl Berg plays with the</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">concept of how to represent the aura of places and objects. Berg photographs and prints</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">his work digitally, however, at no point does he alter the images. As the artist states,</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">these photographs are all “actual camera captures not computer constructions.” This is a</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">critical distinction in considering the images, as it allows them to act as direct</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">representations of our physical reality. Berg is permitting the medium of photography to</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">act in its true nature. As a result, the context for Carl Berg’s work is tied deeply to the</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">history of photography and artists working in the realm of photographic abstraction.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">Through his deliberate framing, study of texture in surfaces, and choice of subject</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">matter, Carl Berg evokes the abstract photography of Aaron Siskind. However, Berg’s</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">desire to elucidate the “elements of expression in objects not ordinarily seen as</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">communicative” is different than Siskind’s motivation. Siskind describes finding himself</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">as “involved in the relationships of these objects, so much so that these pictures turned</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">out to be deeply moving and personal experiences.”</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">2 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman">He is searching for an intense</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">emotional experience, whereas Berg desires to bring forward what is hidden or unnoticed.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">The inner world of Berg has more to do with revealing the “depth and complexity” of</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">what is initially overlooked, of breaking the skin and going beneath it. Siskind, on the</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">other hand, seeks a connection with the outward world.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">In 1944, Aaron Siskind created a series titled </font><i><font face="Times New Roman">Gloucester Rocks</font></i><font face="Times New Roman">, where he found</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">the objects to be very alive, so much so that he could “hardly bear to walk over the</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">rocks.”</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">3 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman">In the work by Carl Berg titled </font><i><font face="Times New Roman">Sand, Montauk</font></i><font face="Times New Roman">, a very flat, almost linear space is</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">described, similar to that of Siskind’s rocks. The form shifts upon each viewing. Just</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">like Siskind’s work, the scale is unclear and the diagonals and tonality of the image</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">sustain a mysterious feeling, almost as if it could be a mountainside. The diagonal</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">movement of the sand echoes the same gesture in another photograph titled </font><i><font face="Times New Roman">Wall Shadow,</font></i></p> <p align="left"> <i><font face="Times New Roman">Laos</font></i><font face="Times New Roman">. In this image, the diagonal shadow above the facet crosses rigidly, breaking the</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">image in two. These two images are side by side in the exhibition, resulting in a dance</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">that seems to occur as the diagonals move back and forth.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">Whether the image is from Laos or Montauk, all of the photographs of Berg</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">maintain a very similar tonality and feeling, even the ones that are, in fact,</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">representational. The camera’s power is to focus the mind on a limited area. Berg’s</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">framing is a reminder of what he recognizes and points to as home when he is scouring</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">for images. The surface of the pictures has a clear consistency to them. When one travels,</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">the environment and the desire to go beneath the surface of a location becomes more</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">apparent, or perhaps Berg is recognizing something familiar and feeling the urgency to</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">describe that. Whatever the interior process of Berg may be the result is clearly drawn</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">from a desire to describe the texture of the thing.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">A second image of Berg’s that reflects this experience of texture, tying it to</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">Siskind’s work as well, is called the </font><i><font face="Times New Roman">Oaxaca Wall</font></i><font face="Times New Roman">. The flesh color of the broken wall</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">emerges from deep underneath the old posters, glue has scarred the concrete. The picture</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">is laden with the history of this wall, and a collage is formed. In the right corner blue text</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">from a dance club poster appears, and paint peels against the outer edges of the frame.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">An unfolding appears to take place here. Siskind describes one of his own wall</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">photographs from Mexico, “I place a configuration in the frame in a certain way which</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">makes it more delicate – gives it a swing here and a bloom there…”</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">4 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman">Berg’s image</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">unfurl before us and reveal something that can be easily missed. The wall holds a sense</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">of possibility, of a chance meeting, or a moment of passing strangers.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">In the work titled </font><i><font face="Times New Roman">Face, NYC</font></i><font face="Times New Roman">, Berg again dislocates the viewer by using scale. It</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">almost looks as if it is a lake or a geographical feature. He pays true homage to painting</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">here. The tonal values, shifting forces, and gestures, lead one to identify a figural</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">allusion. The title also gives away Berg’s decided interpretation, he points us in the</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">direction of looking for a face, yet no face easily appears. We are confronted with</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">something hidden that needs time and space before it will reveal itself to us. Berg forces</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">the viewer to slow down in this moment and reflect inwardly. The lights and darks fade</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">in and out. The image seems to twist and break, and there is almost a subtle violence to it.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">The artist’s choice to use what is practically a black and white palette, certainly points to</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">another era.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">Carl Berg has manifested a body of work, which forces its audience to move</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">subtly through it. He begs the question of naming how much is missed in a given moment</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">as we rush through our days, through our lives. He professes a silent world, where if time</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">is truly given, then secrets are revealed and the images will unfold and blossom before us.</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">He studies the skin. He searches for traces. He roams scrutinizing the surface of his</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">world for that moment when the abyss willingly breaks open and swallows us whole, for</font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman">the moment when depth gushes forth before us.</font></p> <p align="left"> </p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">1 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Barthes, Roland. </font></font><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Camera Lucida</font></font></i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">.</font></font></font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">2 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Chiarenza, Carl. </font></font><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors </font></font></i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">(New York: Little Brown and Company 1982), 65.</font></font></font></p> <p align="left"> <font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">3 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Chiarenza, Carl. </font></font><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors </font></font></i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">(New York: Little Brown and Company 1982), 57</font></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" size="1">4 </font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Chiarenza, Carl. </font></font><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors</font></font></i><font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="2">. Pg 190</font></font></p> </span> </font></span><br>
No Nation Images c 2008
