{"id":19092,"date":"2013-05-12T17:47:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T21:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=19092"},"modified":"2013-05-28T12:42:14","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T16:42:14","slug":"penumbra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=19092","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Wright: Penumbra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Wright\u2019s Penumbra<\/em> on display at the University Toronto Art Center (UTAC) opened May 3rd <\/sup>as a primary exhibition for the Scotiabank Contact Festival. This is Wright’s fifth year exhibiting with Contact.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the first time his work for Contact has been assembled as a retrospective, displaying over a decade of his work. Bonnie Rubenstein, the artistic director for Contact, curated Penumbra<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Adrew Wright, in front of his work After Kurelek, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

The experience of Wright\u2019s work is delightfully disorienting. The eye travels through incredible photographic details, out of focus hazes, and flat, non-reflective surfaces. Upon entering the space the viewer is struck by Nox Borealis<\/em>, a freestanding photographic sculpture. Wright studied sculpture before turning to the photographic medium. This work has departed from the traditional domain of the wall and has entered into the direct vicinity. The work challenges viewers to maneuver around and through these two representations of an inverted artic sky. Wright has created a unique perspective of a landscape. This work is separated into two prints placed on plywood and standing freely within the gallery space. The shape of Nox Borealis, <\/em>as well as Still Water<\/em> resembles that of minimalist sculpture. Despite this likeness, his play of the crisp white snow set against a flat black sky set in an elongated space, has a more stupefying effect upon the viewer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Andrew Wright, Nox Borealis, <\/em>2012<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wright has used a range of photographic technologies that expand across the history of photography, from the sixteenth century device of the camera obscura to the iPhone Apps of today. Although Wright has used both traditional and contemporary photographic technologies his works are not photographs in our traditional sense of the medium.\u00a0He makes direct reference to proto-photographic techniques, he then appropriates these methods and interfaces them with modern technologies. The artist\u2019s historical investigation of photography illustrates ways in which technology has changed how we view the world. This reference to the history of photography is made in works such as When Buildings Take Pictures Themselves<\/em>, created using a camera obscura, the first photographic apparatus conceived in the Renaissance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When Buildings Take Pictures Themselves<\/em>, 2013<\/p>\n

The works entitled Photogenic Drawings XXI, XXII, <\/em>pay homage to the roots of photographic techniques, but were made using an Iphone app. Aided Drawing 1;2,<\/em> are drawings <\/em>created by using the 19th<\/sup> century device the camera lucida.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Visitor looking through a Camera Lucida<\/p>\n

The apparatus was incorporated into the exhibition for visitors to look through, offering many ways of seeing. Wright plays upon the historical conventions of photography and turns them upside down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Andrew Wright, Photogenic Drawing, Antique Clouds, Prairie<\/em>,2011<\/p>\n

Wright\u2019s work effectively raises the questions: \u201cwhere is the photographer? Where is the photography?\u201d His response is through ambivalence to the subject matter of his work.\u00a0He removes himself as photographer when creating the camera-less images Coronae 1;2.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Andrew Wright, Coronae 2, <\/em>detail, 2011<\/p>\n

They are <\/em>created by puncturing old film. These works have the appearance of astronomical specimens. Box of Fifty <\/em>are <\/em>works made from expired film that have been left on a windowsill for a number of weeks. The works were then printed on out of production photo paper. The viewer feels uncertainty to what they are looking at with many of these pieces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Installation view with Andrew Wright, Tree correction series, 2013 <\/em>(right)<\/p>\n

Wright\u2019s work challenges its viewers to make sense of what they are looking at. His work asks its viewers to rummage through their visual vocabulary to make logical sense of these new ways of looking. Wright describes his work as \u201cmulti-tiered inquiries into the nature of perception, photographic structures, and technologies.\u201d Wright\u2019s work reflects his \u201cinterest in what makes a photograph and what makes a photographic experience.\u201d In pursuit of the answers to these questions, the artist has abstracted and isolated the principles of the medium, and presented new ways of thinking about photography.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The show is open till June 29, 2013 at UTAC, 15 King\u2019s College Circle. Hours: Tue \u2013 Fri, 12 \u2013 5, Wed, 12 \u2013 8, Sat, 12 \u2013 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Text and photo: Alice Tallman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alice Tallman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wright’s work asks its viewers to rummage through their visual vocabulary to make logical sense of these new ways of looking.<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alice-tallman","category-features","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19092"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19113,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19092\/revisions\/19113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}