ART CITIES:Paris-James Casebere
Born in 1953 in Michigan, USA, James Casebere lives and works in New York. The work produced by this pioneer of staged photography is a poetic commentary on our society, never referring to a clearly identifiable reality. The artist works using models, imaginary and standardised reconstructions of familiar buildings that he painstakingly creates in his studio then uses as the basis for his photographs. His images can have a paradoxical effect, their visual beauty often arousing feelings of discomfort and emptiness.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Templon Archive
James Casebere presents his new series of works entitled “On the Water’s Edge”, at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris. In this arresting new series of images, Casebere continues his ever-evolving exploration of form at the intersection of architecture, sculpture and photography. In previous, well-known bodies of work, the artist depicted buildings and interiors based primarily on extant structures; this series, however, is distinguished by a marked change in Casebere’s conceptual approach. To create these salient new images, Casebere became the architect, often designing and building the structures he produced and then photographed. Over the course of 40 years, James Casebere has developed a unique and increasingly complex language of “constructed photography” in which he builds structural models, which he then lights and photographs. Based on art historical, cinematic and architectural sources, his table-sized constructions are made of simple materials and pared down to essential forms. Throughout his practice, Casebere’s images have expanded to accommodate his exploration of different aesthetic and technical challenges. For instance, Casebere’s previous series of images, inspired by world-renowned Mexican architect Luis Barragán, embraced modernist architecture’s use of space, color and light to create images that engendered warmth, meditation, and reflection. In this new body of work, Casebere continues with a nod to the influence of Barragán, but also architect Paul Rudolph in his visionary mid-century modern Florida homes and later shift to Brutalism. In these images, Casebere re-imagines both the context and the content of the original structures. The works in “On the Water’s Edge”, are hybrids of public/private spaces. Geometrically designed edifices rendered in a rich and vibrant palette; these buildings appear simultaneously concrete and abstract; they are open, even unfinished buildings of the sort that provide sanctuary, such as beach houses, cabanas, bathhouses. Neither utopian nor dystopian, these images are meant to inspire an appreciation of pure beauty coupled with a twinge of uncertainty. Indeed, in these unmoored, flooded pavilions, Casebere sees human ingenuity in the face of global warming. Acknowledging the imminent unknown future these pictures embody, he also insists that we “can’t afford to throw our hands up in…resignation”.
Info: Galerie Templon, 30 rue Beaubourg, Paris, Duration: 11/1-7/3/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.templon.com
