Manufactured Self at the Museum of Contemporary Photography Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist’s Eye at the Museum of Contemporary Art
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Maybe because humor undercuts rational assumptions, the photographs that work best have a sense of levity. The Ghanaian subjects of Philip Kwame Apagya’s studio portrait photos pose with various possessions: an airplane, an entertainment center, a giant boom box. All are elements of obviously fake but appealingly naive and exuberant painted backdrops, and the people posing are unself-consciously delighted with their artificial signs of affluence and modernity. The photographer’s approach echoes 19th-century American studio portraits in which serious-looking working-class people pose against the backdrop of a middle-class parlor or lean on a Victorian prop like a broken Greek column–but the Ghanaians are laughing.
Peter Menzel traveled the globe to depict families posed with all their belongings arrayed in front of their homes. His 14 high-quality 18-by-24-inch digital prints explore the relationships between possessions and people, between production and consumption, without oversimplifying our material lives or draining them of their rich variety and significance. Because his wide shots include both details and a broad overview, they show the connection between the environment, the household’s family structure, and the material culture. A shot (taken collaboratively with Peter Ginter) of the California Skeen family–mother, father, and two children–and their yard jammed with multicolored stuff shows the low, barren mountains bordering their subdivision.
Chinese sculptor Zhan Wang travels the world with a collection of stainless steel pots, pans, chafing dishes, teapots, and other kitchen utensils and assembles them in a depiction of each city he visits. Wang’s model of Chicago, displayed here, includes towers of pots, which allude to the Marina and Sears towers. Behind each “city” he places some stainless steel mountains–representations of the Beijing range–and the room is walled with mirrors. The result is a gleaming, mysterious assemblage.
When: Through 3/3: Mon-Fri 10 AM-5 PM, Thu till 8 PM; Sat noon-5 PM
When: Through 6/5: Tue 10 AM-8 PM, Wed-Sun 10 AM-5 PM
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery/New York, Musuem of Contemporary Photography Collection, Courtyard Gallery/Beijing.
