As soon as photography took the place of painting as the primary means of creating portraits and otherwise documenting images, painting assumed a new role in society. Freed from its rather pedestrian job of reproduction, painting went off in a variety of new directions, with artists exploring gesture, color, and form in dynamic and radical new ways. Yet a kinship with photography has always remained, and the ways in which the territories of painting and photography relate and intersect has continued to provide inspiration and challenge for generations of artists.
As the world of photography has migrated from an exclusive residence in the darkroom out into the realm of computers and digital technology, videotaping is often just a click away, and the mediums of painting, photography, and film reveal themselves to be increasingly interrelated. Artists have always been fascinated with the self-portrait, and as materials and techniques evolve, this fact remains the same.
For her first solo show at Spur Projects, recent M.F.A. Ajna Lichau presents a grouping of works on canvas, and a trio of video installations. All of these incorporate the image of the artist, in a variety of evocative, yet hazy, personas. Along the back wall are works using the image of a young woman in a state of apparent coming or going. In “Journey: male in doorway, female against wall” the woman, wearing black pants, skirt and boots, and a brown woven leather belt, faces a glowing honey-orange wall; her palms and forehead lightly balanced against its surface. A pensive male figure stands in a brightly lit lemon hallway; dark skinned, bald, he wears dark pants and a light t-shirt, his hands half-crossed over his chest. “Journey: figure in arch doorway inside kitchen” is barefoot, ghost-like, her flowing black dress suggests another era, as does the arched doorway, and wall-mounted, touch-tone phone.
at Spur Projects, Portola Valley
In “Journey: red wall with figure at stairway” one-third of the canvas is scarlet, interrupted by a black stripe. A female figure at the top of the stairway is blurred; banister, jamb and an old wooden chair sharply focused and static. We may recall sci-fi films where creatures from other dimensions move too fast to be seen in ours. A pair of “Silhouettes” are dark, moody, minimal. “Silhouette in a small doorway” features a warm urban light which bathes a mysterious figure crouching in a tiny door, its fuzzy shadow blends into surrounding blackness.
While these works are photographically derived, they appear quite painterly. In this digitally dominated age, how does the process of manipulating an image onto a canvas come to be distinguished as “painting” or “photograph”? As is the case with much art, the decision remains largely reflective of the artist’s intention; in this case the choice is photography. These works also have a highly theatrical feel to them, as though they have been costumed, directed, and filmed. Also, a feeling of expectancy looms; we wonder what the subjects are up to: are they waiting for something or someone to come: Have they just received bad news? Are they about to jump?
