Monday, July 20, 2009

Narrative Tableaux

The Colonel's Nightly Visit to Ponil Park


People Space would like to invite you all to “Narrative Tableaux”, a new exhibition by the American photographer Dan Overturf.

These narrative tableaux images included in this exhibit represent a small collection from a series that he started in the early 1990’s. Recently he has returned to the body of work and made new images in anticipation of exhibiting the work for the first time as an isolated series.

Since 1998 the artist has been actively making documentary images and completing a number of long-term projects. The narrative imagery had been set aside since but the work and the spirit in the images still hold a large measure of vitality for him. In his way of thinking, the definitions between the found (documentary) and the fabricated (narrative) have always felt very flexible and the two remain related. Both genres are rooted in the aspect of photography and life that fascinates him most: story.


Father's Day in Uncle Swilling's Workshop

His photographic narrative tableaux have always been built on a synthesis of literary, visual and anecdotal sources. They were, in effect, investigations that allude to, and/or toy with traditional storytelling formats. He has been working in this area since 1979. With the later work included here he had the opportunity to expand both the physical and thematic boundaries of the work.

The work stems from an eclectic range of possible beginnings. These range from an obscure text entitled, Narratives of Remarkable Criminal Trials by Anslem Ritter von Feuerbach (1846), to an observation made by a neighbor who works the late shift at a local hospital. Fully intentional art history references abound as well. Many of the gestures found in paintings from the Renaissance period have inspired segments of the images.


Jodie Santana and the Carlyle Wax Droplets
These sources initiate rather crude drawings or sketches that lead to overall themes or just small portions of the eventual images. The images created on elaborate sets, which often take months to complete, were built for the sole purpose of making a single photograph. The images were executed on set, in the camera, with no post-production manipulation or additions of imagery. The artist chooses to work this way since he finds the visceral quality of creating or altering an existing environment for the sole purpose of making a photograph most rewarding. The pleasure is in the complexity of the pre-production, set design and construction, lighting design, prop creation/selection, and directing the participants when all is ready for the final version.


Lonnie Swept the Playroom and Swallowed Up All that He Found

All images were made on either black and white or color film with a variety of cameras including Hasselblad, Linhof 6x17 and A Roundshot 220.


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Activities:
Saturday 15th August 2009 (3 pm)
- Artist’s Talk: Documentary Photography (Examined through the documentary project A River through Illinois)
Sunday 16th August 2009 (3 pm)
- Artist’s Talk: Behind the Scenes of Narrative Tableaux


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Narrative Tableaux
On view between 9 August – 5 September 2009
Opening Party: Sunday 9 August 2009 from 4.30 pm onward

Venue: People Space Gallery
Adress: 116 Phrangphuton Rd. , Phranakorn, Bangkok 10200 THAILAND
Opening Hours: Only on Saturday and Sunday (11 am – 7 pm)
Telephone: 082-785-5594
Email: people.space@yahoo.com



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