arpeggia:
Leonora Hamill - Art in Progress, 2012
Click on each image for details.
Artist’s statement:
“Art in Progress is inspired by art schools across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The series, which started in 2009, consists of images of studios where the students work. Shot with a large format camera and printed analogically, the images are intentionally detailed, frontal and neutral. “I have a certain way of confronting myself with reality,” Hamill explains, “and that is conveyed by frontal images, and by a cold aesthetic that offers the spectator the possibility of visually navigating a space that is simultaneously contemplative and dynamic”.
Despite their absence, the students remain present through the spaces they have occupied, the objects they have engaged with, and the work they are in the process of making. The spaces exude a palpable sense of collective energy. The objects that are scattered throughout the studios often belong to the Western canon of history of art and constitute a web of cross-references, which acts as a unifying device throughout the series. The studios, ranging from Saigon to Saint Petersburg and Bombay to New Haven, condense the presence of students, the passage of time, and the production of art, creating an intensely stratified space.”
