Lyle Ashton Harris: Blow Up. Essays by Cassandra Coblentz, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, and Kwame Anthony Appiah, Introduction by Susan Krane. Conversation with Senam Okudzeto, Gregory R. Miller & Co., June 2008, 50 color and 25 black and white images, Paperback (linen cover), ISBN: 978-0-9743648-9-6, US $50.00.
For many the title Blow Up refers to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film in which a photographer uses his camera to express his lust for a model, and in the same moment, the camera may have caught a murder on his film. The film sets up a deep critique as to photography’s ability to record reality and to express yearning. This reference and metaphor lies at the heart of a new book with the same title.
Blow Up is the first retrospective monograph of the artist Lyle Ashton Harris. Published by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art for his 2008 traveling exhibition of the same name, this small (8 ½ by 6 1/2 inched) softbound book tracks the Harris’ career through a variety of visual tracks. Harris’ utilizes many different tangents of photographic medium : from the use vernacular to the handling of collage onto its using photography as a stage for performance. It is these abilities to transcend forms and find new artistic expressions that warrant a monograph of Harris’ work, for it is imperative for viewers to understand the visual journey that his ideas travel along. But the form of the book itself halts some of the reading of Harris’ complex work.
The 192-page book takes us from the early well-known work of Harris’ beginning in 1988 and travels through 2006. Taking us through the catalog of work chronologically, it starts with Harris’ most well known imagery. These aggressive black and white images Harris’ uses the body serves as a stage for performing his complicated views about race and sexuality. Identity politics serve as a space of inspiration for these images. Men and women are clad in white face makeup return the stare of the viewer. (American Triptych (Kym Lyle and Crinoline). They stand in wigs defiantly screaming back at the camera (Ecstasy #2); they are clad in the American flag, yet are often blurred, as if to run away from a gaze (America’s Triptych (Miss America)) . They are defiant and strong.
From these images, we see Harris as a different type of image-maker. The Watering Hole represents Harris’ beginnings with collage work. In this work he is responding to the story of Jeffery Dahmer, and his violent acts. Harris created collages, which are then re-photographed which elegantly pair newspaper clippings, advertisements, and text to combine the acts of fetish and fear that Dahmer’s acts represents.
These artistic acts lead Harris to create the piece Blow Up, for which the book is named after. In 2004 Harris shifts his practice from collage to photographic installations for this work. Responding to the an Addias ad of the famous soccer star Zinedine Zidane receiving a pedicure from a brown skin man, Harris’ collects imagery that hints the same homoerotic and servitude nature of this inspirational image. This image appears at the center of the work, and is cloaked with images of sports fans in the stadium, police there to protect both player and spectator and images from popular culture that reflect the fetish for heroes. Here the act of collage was not made for the camera, but shifts to be made for the space in which the work was installed (at Rhona Hofmann Gallery Chicago, 2004). And as Harris’ installed the work in different cities throughout the years (Armory 2005, Seville 2006) allowing the city, space and different political environments reflect into the installation of the work.
Lastly Harris’ work travels to Ghana, where Harris lives and teaches part of the year. Harris’ turns his camera onto the people of Ghana, and allows this African country to speak for itself. Instead of the poor images of Africa that we are often see, Harris’ offers snapshop images of a modern culture complete rich with culture which is complicated by technology and cell phones. These images were included in the book but not in the exhibition, and are a part of the artist’s collection of images.
Writings by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cassandra Coblentz, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis and a conversation between the artist and Senam Okudzeto intertwine into the imagery offering a variety of reads of Harris’ work. These writings dominate the pages of the book. From the anecdotal (Appiah) to the rather academic (Coblentz) the writers repeatedly focus on the installations of Blow Up, but offer very little commentary on the work that comes before, and more importantly after that pivotal body of work. Much is mentioned to Harris’ ability to collect and harvest vernacular imagery in his collages, and the history of this creative outlet. While much is mentioned about Harris’s trips to Africa and the difference in cultural community (reflections are made about being a homosexuality in an Ghana), little is offered in the discussion in the sharp visual shifts of the work. This creates a confusing visual conclusion to this collection of images.
Design components of this book make it a challenge to read. The text matches the teal cover of the book, creating a difficult read for the eyes. Reading also challenged by two types of paper (one cream, and one stark white). Some reproductions that illuminate the writer’s ideas are in black in white and others are in teal and white, which does not translate a full color image well. The book is rather small in size, especially when looking at large installation work. These quirky design elements do not help with the enjoyment of viewing of the book.
This is collection of Lyle Ashton Harris’ work is an important document discussing the ideas and concepts of an often overlooked artist. More attention should have been spent on the consequences of the books design, and the weightiness of all of the essays. For these elements dilute the power of this visual collection. – Myra Greene
