Underneath

Gestalt theorists followed the basic principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Underneath represents the whole but also the parts. The whole of one persons reality in time and space and my re-configuration of it. In viewing the "whole," a cognitive process takes place – the mind makes a leap from comprehending the parts to realising the whole, this whole is both the subject/object but also the surround - without one the other makes no sense. If we view the surround as a type of reality one asks another question - who’s reality? And then how is the configuration projected? Who is the protagonist? Everything that is not figure is ground, ground is perceived reality. The ground as surround becomes the mirror. I have no images from my past reality, they were destroyed during the Yugoslavian civil war. I create meaning in the view of others, a view that resonates with me, that makes sense. The reality is projected, which is why I project it in Underneath. We all project, both our reality and the reality of others. Again it’s how we make sense of our objects and our surround. Each image is fanciful - some majestic some pedestrian, like the collective moments in our lives. Notably, postmodernisms' apparent authenticity never existed, and all art including photography never depicted reality; only an idea of reality.  Underneath is the re-photographing of slides (reversal film). I am in this narrative showing holiday snaps from 1960s. I’m projecting conventional notions of originality and playing with the glorification of authenticity and authorship - because as I see it, nether is tangible. I am engaging in a regenerative act of collaboration, transforming someone else records and memories into something “whole” and continually knowable. Through re-photographing the images via a 19th century photographic process: wet plate collodion. I’m repositioning the forms and someone else’s vision by giving it a new meaning - in new context. It provides for possibility but also the significance of projected reality - projecting it as the surround, I'm asking the viewer to be not only the subject but also the object. Photography, is both a reflection and a manipulation of reality, and therefore viewed and judged by that vision.  To say that photographs depict the truth is not correct. What they actually depict are slices of life selected and framed by the protagonist. "Underneath each picture, there is always another picture.”  - Douglas Crimp