Some Thoughts on Photography--circa 1999

My grandmother dug this scrap of paper up the other day. It is the photocopied text of an artist statement from one of my first art shows. I think it was a show of black and white street photographs made it Scotland and England. At the time I was obsessed, and I mean obsessed with the work of Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Robert Adams, Helen Levitt and company. The images were printed straight, with no major manipulations in the darkroom, save for a few filter changes and burns and dodges. Saying that this was a statement from a "show" is a bit of an exaggeration. These pictures were hung in on a bulletin board of sorts in a lighted hallway space. My mom came up from home with a car load of boxed wine and assorted cheese and crackers and we threw a little party. Still, at the end of my senior year, it felt like a declaration that I was going in a different direction. 

Here is the text:

A photograph is a strange thing. It is both a tool to jog the memory of the events of our lives and an object on its own. A photograph is portable. It's able to be ripped, faded, burned, tacked up on a wall, or thrown in a drawer. Mostly we take snapshots of silly family events, great rites of passage, ad drunken college escapades. But something happens to people when they are aware of the photographer, aware of the impending photograph as a document of their beauty, weight, current hairstyle. People become self-conscious, their smiles turn to big crooked grins, eyes become squinty, and a little powerless. Each of the photographs on these walls is about what happens when the camera is hidden, when the click of the shutter is a surprise, unheard in a crowd. I have never spoken to these people. I didn't even ask any of them if I could take their picture--but I know them and I live with them and they are my new strange friends who stare back at me late at night..I carry them around with me in an old Ilford photo paper box and I don't even know them. Photography is special that way.  

Atlanta--Coming At Ya

I will be headed to Atlanta to give an Artist Lecture at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center on June 10th  7-8pm...

I am very excited for this talk. "The Contemporary" as it is known among locals, was the first place to formally show my performance work when I lived in the south from 2001-2005. 

More info forthcoming...

but here is a pic from my recent trip to England, take that DOUBLE DOWN

Anya In The New York Times

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/sitting-with-marina/

Hey, Check out Arthur C. Danto's piece in today's New York Times about the Marina show. He mentions my intervention and the second pic in the series is of yours truly. 

No Soul For Sale-Tate Modern Performance Still

Here are a few images from my performance on Saturday at No Soul For Sale at Tate Modern. I was working with Casa Tres Patios, an artist-run initiative from Medellin, Colombia. Last march, I spent a month as an Artist in Residence in Medellin teaching performance and movement techniques to students from the University of Antioquia. I also developed a piece called, "Amor Y Problemas" that was shown at Casa Tres Patios and later shown in New York at Exit Art as part of the Performance in Crisis Series during Performa 09.

For this durational piece, I sat still for four hours with a "crown" made out of a stove pipe and dyed red hot dogs balanced on my head. I cradled one raw blue-dyed chicken in my right lap and had another raw blue chicken perched atop my wooden staff. 

These images were made by James Southworth, a videographer and musician living in London. 

Stay Thirsty Interview

Hey, here is this old interview I did with the lovely Eliot Fearey in 2009...I never posted it...so here it is

http://www.staythirstymedia.com/200903-031/html/200903-anya-liftig-int.html