DAVID CLAERBOUT
Originally trained as a painter, David Claerbout creates installations and video works that sit uneasily between photography and film. He frequently creates tension in his works by using what appear to be still photographs but are in fact videos that gradually change over time, Reflecting Sunset (2003), for example, shows a setting sun reflected in the windows of an Italian building dating from the 1930s. The austere Fascist-era façade sharply contrasts with the landscape reflected in its windows. The only evidence of time passing is the gradual movement of the sun. Claerbout's images thus transform and comment on the static eternity of the photograph, exploring the transient nature of time and place and the incapability of any form of visual reproduction to capture "reality completely.
If Claerbout's images make theoretical and formal investigations, some of his subjects also point to a political dimension at the heart of his practice. Vietnam, 1967, near Duc Pho (Reconstruction after Hiromishi Mine). (2001) is based on a well known black and white photograph of an exploding plane, taken during the Vietnamese war by Hiromishi Mine, a Japanese photographer working for Magnum. The image shows the twin-engine caribou aircraft falling from the sky after having been shot down in friendly fire. Nearly 40 years after the crash, Claerbout filmed the same site in colour. Within the now lush landscape near Duc Pho, Claerbout reinserted the descending plane. Over the course of the video's 3 1/2 minutes, the mute image, suspended in mid-air, moves almost imperceptibly.
A painterly preoccupation with texture, color and composition combines with the moving image to shift attention from the role of the original photograph as a static document of political conflict to a contemporary still life in which the spectator's experience of time, space and perception are transformed, suggesting possible new readings of narrative and history.-B.V./E.F.
http://www.diacenter.org/claerbout/index.html
http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=DEF7D35B-846D-4539-9E17D5A54E8CB930
http://www.deappel.nl/hauntedbydetail/who/claerbout.htm
http://www.photography-now.com/artists/K06368.html
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/10691
http://www.boilermag.it/gallery/David-Claerbout
http://www.stylusart.com/noticias/davidclaerbout/davidclaerbouten.htm
http://www.galerie-ruediger-schoettle.de/Kuenstler/claerbout/claerbout.html
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/423794582/_David_Claerbout_The_Stack_Movie_Still_2.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_2_92/ai_113232747
Born 1969 in Kortrijk, Belgium
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Brussels, Belgium
Vietnam, 1967. Near Duc Pho (Reconstruction After Hiromishi Mine), 1997
Single channel video projection, mute, color, 3'30"
Courtesy the artist and Gallery Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
Single channel video projection, mute, color, 3'30"
Courtesy the artist and Gallery Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
Originally trained as a painter, David Claerbout creates installations and video works that sit uneasily between photography and film. He frequently creates tension in his works by using what appear to be still photographs but are in fact videos that gradually change over time, Reflecting Sunset (2003), for example, shows a setting sun reflected in the windows of an Italian building dating from the 1930s. The austere Fascist-era façade sharply contrasts with the landscape reflected in its windows. The only evidence of time passing is the gradual movement of the sun. Claerbout's images thus transform and comment on the static eternity of the photograph, exploring the transient nature of time and place and the incapability of any form of visual reproduction to capture "reality completely.
If Claerbout's images make theoretical and formal investigations, some of his subjects also point to a political dimension at the heart of his practice. Vietnam, 1967, near Duc Pho (Reconstruction after Hiromishi Mine). (2001) is based on a well known black and white photograph of an exploding plane, taken during the Vietnamese war by Hiromishi Mine, a Japanese photographer working for Magnum. The image shows the twin-engine caribou aircraft falling from the sky after having been shot down in friendly fire. Nearly 40 years after the crash, Claerbout filmed the same site in colour. Within the now lush landscape near Duc Pho, Claerbout reinserted the descending plane. Over the course of the video's 3 1/2 minutes, the mute image, suspended in mid-air, moves almost imperceptibly.
A painterly preoccupation with texture, color and composition combines with the moving image to shift attention from the role of the original photograph as a static document of political conflict to a contemporary still life in which the spectator's experience of time, space and perception are transformed, suggesting possible new readings of narrative and history.-B.V./E.F.
http://www.diacenter.org/claerbout/index.html
http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=DEF7D35B-846D-4539-9E17D5A54E8CB930
http://www.deappel.nl/hauntedbydetail/who/claerbout.htm
http://www.photography-now.com/artists/K06368.html
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/10691
http://www.boilermag.it/gallery/David-Claerbout
http://www.stylusart.com/noticias/davidclaerbout/davidclaerbouten.htm
http://www.galerie-ruediger-schoettle.de/Kuenstler/claerbout/claerbout.html
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/423794582/_David_Claerbout_The_Stack_Movie_Still_2.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_2_92/ai_113232747