Portraits of Pictures

Portraits of Pictures, Portrait 22 2007, Anne-Karin Furunes

I have been experimenting for the past few weeks with physically intervening with my prints. I have taped second prints to them and then scanned the resulting piece to make something new, I have cut into prints to fold back a portion and expose a second print beneath. I am at the very early stages with these experiments, but have felt a desire to manipulate them with my hands. To have physical interaction with my photographs.

At Art Chicago last Friday I came upon the work of Anne-Karin Furunes, a Norwegian painter.

Furunes, a Norwegian artist, creates haunting large-scale paintings of faces and landscapes by perforating the surface of black or white canvas or unpainted aluminum with hundreds of handmade holes. The holes allow the image to coalesce for the viewer, similar to the dot-screened images in a newspaper. Her subtly pixilated images of particular people and sites reflect the artist’s concern with memory, history, and the nature of photographic reality. For the past decade, Furunes has exhibited her paintings extensively in Europe, and has created a series of monumental public works in Norway.

Portraits of Pictures, Portrait 12 2007, Anne-Karin Furunes

These Portraits were some of the most affecting and memorable work I saw all day. The occasional current of air would flutter the stretched canvas enhancing the haunting, enigmatic pieces. They will stay with me for a long time.

The critic Mika Hannula noted this active aspect of looking at Furunes’s work: “You see the picture, how it changes, and you realize: sometimes it helps to go a little further away so as to see a little more closely....You are in the end remaking the painting, re-describing it for that short moment as your place, your face, your memory–your version of reality.”

I found this quote interesting, as he pretty well sums up what all photographs do, re-describe.

You can see more of her work here and read the full press release from Barry Friedman, Ltd. here.