Every once in a while this happens to me: I remember something. Strange though it may sound. It is true. Even though it feels lately like I have maxed out on gray matter: every new piece of information replaces an old one! Something bubbles up from the recesses of my mind... Today I remembered the short story of the small part I had in creating the image posted here. This is a famous photograph titled "Dead Troops Talk" staged by Vancouver artist Jeff Wall. In the early 1990's in a warehouse off of East Broadway Jeff recreated this scene, intended to be a bizarre snap-shot of the 1980's conflict in Afghanistan presented in a history painting scale photo light box. Jeff set it up by fabricating the entire hill-side out of wheel barrow after wheel barrow of earth supported by a structure of plywood. Well, for about a week I went there with my friend Ben Reeves (now an accomplished Vancouver artist in his own right) to help Jeff build this scene. I don't really even remember what we did exactly - I think we moved dirt around. Anyway, I don't remember anything particularly revelatory about the work - aside from the technique being significant at the time: shooting on huge 12 inch negatives separate plates and then recomposing the image digitally choosing all the appropriate takes for different aspects of the image. Pretty standard today. Pretty crazy back in the day. What do I remember? Moving dirt.
Friday, March 02, 2007
An Odd Memory of Jeff Wall
Every once in a while this happens to me: I remember something. Strange though it may sound. It is true. Even though it feels lately like I have maxed out on gray matter: every new piece of information replaces an old one! Something bubbles up from the recesses of my mind... Today I remembered the short story of the small part I had in creating the image posted here. This is a famous photograph titled "Dead Troops Talk" staged by Vancouver artist Jeff Wall. In the early 1990's in a warehouse off of East Broadway Jeff recreated this scene, intended to be a bizarre snap-shot of the 1980's conflict in Afghanistan presented in a history painting scale photo light box. Jeff set it up by fabricating the entire hill-side out of wheel barrow after wheel barrow of earth supported by a structure of plywood. Well, for about a week I went there with my friend Ben Reeves (now an accomplished Vancouver artist in his own right) to help Jeff build this scene. I don't really even remember what we did exactly - I think we moved dirt around. Anyway, I don't remember anything particularly revelatory about the work - aside from the technique being significant at the time: shooting on huge 12 inch negatives separate plates and then recomposing the image digitally choosing all the appropriate takes for different aspects of the image. Pretty standard today. Pretty crazy back in the day. What do I remember? Moving dirt.
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