ART-PRESENTATION: Thomas Ruff-press++
Thomas Ruff has fundamentally changed our relationship to the photographic image, moving it beyond reactionary ideas of documentation and supposed “truth” towards a more conceptual, fluid interplay in which the nature of what is perceived as a mere construction of reality is brought into painterly focus. Nothing has provided more fascination for him than the computerized consistency of the ubiquitous digital image.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive
Thomas Ruff in his solo exhibition “press++” presents large-scale photographs of archival media clippings from American newspapers that relate to the theme of space exploration. Ruff scanned the front and back of the original documents, which he has been collecting over several years, and combined the two sides. Interested equally in the subject matter (and any touch-ups) on the front of the paper and the words, stamps, signatures, and smudges on the back, he thus created seamless montages of image and text, in the process compromising the integrity of the former as well as adding relevant context. The overlap causes each side to lose its intended information and merge into a new image altogether. As such, the often disrespectful treatment of press pictures by newspaper editors becomes obvious, as text, cropping, and retouching can all fundamentally change the original document. This series of work continue Ruff’s long-standing interest in the deconstruction of the image and the new structures of photography following digital technology. It relates to earlier series by the artist including “Newspaper Photographs”, in which images were sourced from analog newspaper prints, and “jpegs”, where he used digitally disseminated photographs. The new works further recall the emergence of photomontage in Germany in the ‘20s, where it was employed by Dada artists as a potent and subversive political tool. Ruff’s digital composites, however, are not concerned with the often fragmented and surrealistic effects produced by these art historical precedents, but with the treatment of the photographic image when it is redistributed and re-archived. As layers of information coexist seamlessly, the idea of a source becomes increasingly obsolescent and the image acquires even greater agency. The information of the press image is lost in favor of an image of its own artistic value.
Info: David Zwirner Gallery, 533 West 19th Street, New York, Duration: 31/3-30/4/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com
