TOUGHLove
An exhibition following Dorothee Dupris'
workshop at Cranbrook University; this workshop was conducted with intent to
realize a magazine with contributions from local artists Aric Miller, Olivia
Abrahamian, Shaina Kasztelan, Ashley Cook, Katie Hawley and Maia Asshaq, in
collaboration with the MFA Photography class.
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This exhibition will display the results of the
workshop and provide the opportunity to meet the artists
involved.
Friday, October 11th 7:00pm at North
End Studios
A brief reflexion on the troubled relationship
between reality and representation
Reality and Representation, especially since photography exists, have had a long and complicated relationship. At times they seem in perfect harmony, and at others, we have difficulty determining which is the most unbelievable : reality or its representation ? Of course, they are not alone in this monkey business. From hidden truths to evidences, from invisible phenomenons to spectacular situations, from intention to cheat to aspiration to transparence, a lot of actors involved in the business of representation and reality interfere in a love affair that could at time flow very smoothly and render society fairer. The problem is that representation by nature is not the faithful replica of reality. Its' modalities of apparition, production, circulation and interpretation obey some internal rules that can't be totally controlled by all aforementioned actors, for better or worse. At the time of the internet, when the circulation of images seems to have gotten totally out of control, there is paradoxically a growing lack of alternative representations. Images of a future that could be different from the one we see coming too fast, bearing again and again the same stigmatas, using the same mechanics, the same systems, favoring the same people, the same strategies, are alarmingly absent. Some are tempted to see in this lack of representation the lack of a fitting reality, the proof that a new world that a big part of humanity reclaims is not yet viable, as we can't even seem to make a tangible, visible draft of it.
The conference will aim to challenge these assumptions through concrete examples showing tactics in the oeuvre of contemporary representation, focusing not only on the world of art but also include the context of global semiotics. Its ambition is to question the very way images and discourses about reality are made, and the possibility to transform reality in return, in resonance with notions like ideology, responsibility, creativity, or censorship. In doing so it affirms the crucial importance – and real possibility – to shape today's representations to build the very future we want to exist tomorrow.
The conference will aim to challenge these assumptions through concrete examples showing tactics in the oeuvre of contemporary representation, focusing not only on the world of art but also include the context of global semiotics. Its ambition is to question the very way images and discourses about reality are made, and the possibility to transform reality in return, in resonance with notions like ideology, responsibility, creativity, or censorship. In doing so it affirms the crucial importance – and real possibility – to shape today's representations to build the very future we want to exist tomorrow.
