All over artBridge site are art critics. Artists expressed in their works premises of an order that we usually do not access immediately with ones rationality. Meanwhile, the today, new media technologies propose some new perceptual experience which makes the artist expression faster readable.
Fascination of the Master Holograms - The presentation the artists made of their work shows an extreme variety of expression and techniques. Such symposium is always a happy time where artists feel part a community not alone and misunderstood, which is the eternal problem of the artist living in his/her universe Still there is a lack of communication between the artists who experience the media, and somehow, with or without help produce their work by themselves and those other artists who commissioned a work without experiencing fully the production step. All those one who produce their works talk about a search in another dimension, all fascinated by the Master Holograms, normally just viewable with laser light, more than by the Copies, the final displays.
Being inside
Francois Mazzero explained that he wanted to work on large format because he could be fully, bodily, inside the work. Moreover the fascination was even stronger when discovering the first master coming out in all its infinite space. Two years ago Dietmar Ohlmann presented the "Micro Hologram", a holographic dot illuminated with a small laser to explore the macrocosm from the apparent microscopic universe. The new "Strata Series of Sally Weber goes in the same directions, exploring the beneath of the Surface. She is also presenting these works as master holograms illuminated with some LED, specially adjusted by Graig Newswanger. Richard Bruckes is also working with laser transmission, where he really find his inspiration. "Heaven Song", is one of his recent work which he described as especially meditative.
The functionality of Sacred Art.
Meditative, spirituality, inner Energy, layers of relations are common words of the artists working with the holographic media. Tom Cvetkovich who had an exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art was showing many different Buddha figures. He explained that in this way he was revisiting what he has done. "After a meditation weekend, I had a feeling that the Picture of Buddha was talking to me. But religion is social, spiritual is individual. Searching for the inner peace you get in contact with Buddhism figures, but this is more a metaphor, for searching your own way. The Buddha representation is just a step to go further into your own spirituality. When I used the rest of Crown Leaf foils, and installed it in my room, it became a sparkling space. This was a very strong experience. There is the functionality of sacred art". May be there is something to think about.
Artist art and collectors. Other references. Art and Collectors by Odile Meulien – Spie Publication
Exhibiting art is an Art
Collecting art May it be the Guggenheims' Collection, or the Philips' Collection all collection are the act of an individual who gives its mark to the works selected. Individualistic way of collecting art joins new movement of artists, creates trends, and reflects a certain time and expressions which finally inspired new generations. Collections have been created by people fascinated by these new works, courageous or crazy enough to choose the un-recognised value. What is true for traditional art gets repeated for the holographic art where the existing collections have been all created differently: the Fielmann Collection, mainly transmission Holograms, MIT Collection with a lot of American works, Matthias Lauk a Collection changing along his various sales, and my collection, international and various.
Jonathan Ross Collection
The Jonathan Ross Collection, also a very often exhibited collection puts together mainly British and American reflection holograms. Last July, it was presented at the Bodelwyddan Castle, North Wales. The selection was showing many new works with colours separation up to holograms generated by computer. For specialists in holography the variety of expressions presented was of high interest. But I am not sure that the general public has been able to capture this variety in the quantity of images all hanged up on the wall in a standard framing reducing the individual artistic expression. Symptomatic of the necessity of difference in presentation was the work of Jon Mitton that everybody enjoyed. His work had a personal finish with a round metallic hanging device suspending the hologram in space and creating shadow on the wall.
New Medium, new communication - Presenting holograms to the public is always a difficult issue because of the constraint of the light, space, time of installation and of course money. Nevertheless I do believe that to show holograms we need to plan it carefully with a specific goal to reach, showing the history, the many art expressions, the evolution of the expression of an artist, a specific propriety of the medium worked out by different artists like Space, colours or portraits, time, continuum, reality, spirituality or technical achievements. In fact the works need to be properly curated to communicate with their observers. Holography is still a new medium, and very often if you ask visitors what they remember of an exhibition with holograms, they answered about the unbelievable moving images in light, talk about the colours and unreal reality of objects, neglecting the visual projected. But maybe this relationship to another reality is for the time being the message.
The fine arts training.
Most of the new generation of artists are presenting installations. Their works are already conceptualised within a display, a specific surrounding to create the atmosphere which will help to translate their vision. As the former curator of the museum of Holography in Washington, I remember the early works of the artists arriving by the post, without even a frame. We had to protect the glass or film and frame them. Later I decided not to frame and hang the piece on the wall in order to place the work back in space. The "Do it ", Jon Mitton cut round inspiring eye effect or egg or earth, of is inspiring for the spectator as this presentation create interpretative paths, to communicate further with the image self. Jon Mitton is an artist like Duncan Jung or Dietmar Ohlmann. All of them have been trained by a team of fine artists teachers from the Liverpool school of arts, who taught them to bring a work to live, fully finish and be able to observe it. Dieter Jung, as well as Margaret Benyon two older artists coming from painting also worked very much on the finish representation before leaving their work in another hand.
Reaching visitors . Exhibition is an interrelation with many different actors. The works of course but also the context, the exhibition place, the people. The communication with the public is important to evaluate in order to bridge the artist's new vision with a non experienced public. I used to display the hologram of John Kaufmann, his "Rock", an interrogation about reality and immateriality, inside a real rock. In this way the expression becomes more accessible to the spectators who have a point of references to compare. We can of course wander if this is correct. Speaking around, I realise that artists have been happy to be presented individually so their reach better the spectators.
Mmultidimensional relationship
. Installation is not just a matter of mode it is a result of the medium itself which open the boundaries of space to be expressed in relation with the visitors with whom it becomes alive. Martina Mrongovius explained it clearly "However, what I found was that by sampling and reconstructing images I could reveal multidimensional relationships through holographic images". This analyse is especially representative of holography, by working on part that she restructures, may it be real or virtual, her work and its presentation expressed a whole transcending the dimensions of the part, integrating in a continuum the visitors, the works, and her vision. Although Holography is a strong medium for creating interactive relationships it is far from being the only one. I have seen in many galleries of Montreal in OBORO and the Galleries Building in Ste. Catherine Street many multimedia installations of sound and light, video and digital print, showing fantastic expression of a holographic universe without having holograms.
Art, a projection into the future
. Holography is just a media, a technique which gives us the possibility to experience, in a radical way, the reality with different perspectives. But many artists with whatever medium they touch express it too. We simply have more difficulty with our restricted mind and habit of thinking to capture their messages. Who ever talk about the multiple dimensions expressed in the faces of Picasso? Fifty years ago, cubism with form and line was in discussion much more than space and dimensions. But the artists was already working and expressing it. Just we did not give attention to it. Art has always been a projection, a forecast intuition on our societies, culture and thoughts, for which we need generation to, understand. Exhibiting art is an art This is why exhibiting art is an art. Although we can appreciate and be grateful for the collection of Jonathan Ross, we must wish him and all other people willing to organise exhibition to present holography within the dimensions of the medium. In this way we will be able to reach Museums, galleries, new collectors and supporters.
