ABSTRACTION
The tendency towards abstraction, is when something is too complex, or too traumatic, to be represented as a single specific example.
In Visual Art, we abstract when the qualities of ideas are too fragmented, too dramatic, to reproduce as a formal figurative representation.
Abstraction as a Movement in the Visual Arts, was made popular by innovative painters in America, during the 1950s.
Groups of artists were pursuing ideas, concepts, and not concerned about making a facsimile of the natural world.
During the process of making work, the action painters in the movement, were evidenced by dynamic brushstrokes, gestures, emotions, and feelings on canvas.
In my practice, from the late 1990s, through exploring ideas, concepts, and methods, the work I was making slowly evolved towards abstraction. Making no attempts to resist the progress, I continued working in a natural flow. Allowing the works to lead me in its own direction.
EXPERIMENTATION
LENS & LIGHT – New Urban Cityscape
In the progression of my practice, making work became a continuous creative process of dynamic activities, action and reaction. The images are from the built environment, but the qualities are metaphors. Experimentation was the norm.
Discovery and innovation resulted in a major project, revealing the possibility of fusing the disciplines of painting and photography in a single image. The project titled ‘Lens & Light was completed in the late 1990s. The body of works, became a personal declaration and statement, relating to the changes taking place in traditional photography, from Darkroom, Science and Chemicals. Into a Lightroom, Digital Technology, and Computer Software.
The subject matter of the project was the ‘New Electronic Energies’ and frequecies in the urban environments, that were invisible to the naked eye.
The new body of works made this electronic environment visible, as abstract images during the late 1990s. It was Captured using medium format cameras, and fixed on 6×7 and 2¼ negatives. Giclee printed, the exhibition was presented as extra-large prints, on heavy weight German Photo-Rag paper.
In the search and struggle to be authentic, original, and unique. Also grappling with the visual language of the work, collaboration and feedback becomes important. From the beginning of the 21st century, the new works are yet to be fully appraised, critique, approved, or disapproved. Where are the Experts in this field?
Curator’s Notes – Lens & Light
Brilliant Photography
Submitted byJeeraik009 onSat, 09/10/2011 – 04:07
“The catalog arrived only recently by mail, although the exhibition took place in Ethiopia during the summer. Yet it is extensive enough to give the viewer an understanding of Jamaican born artist/author Danijah Tafari’s recent work and display.
Every page brims with the energy of his new technique that forgoes formal photographic representation, to capture the play of light and energy in increasingly technology overloaded cityscapes of Kingston, London, Paris and New York. In his personal statement, the artist calls his process ‘drawing and painting with light’, using traditional medium format cameras.
He explains why his recent images such as ‘Ethereal Body’ shown here, fall outside of mainstream taste, and have more often been discarded by professional photo labs.
Yet, Danijah Tafari is drawn to what these single exposure photographs, that have not been digitally enhanced, communicate about the ethereal and electric auras that pervade the atmosphere around us.
The idea of presenting that which is normally unseen, appeals to this artist who has long since been attracted to Ras Tafari philosophy, and a deep concern for humanity. The catalogue does not tell us how this exhibition came to take place in Addis Ababa, but we sense that these brilliant images and the artist, have found a spiritual home in that city of light.” Petrine Archer Straw.
From the reactions to Lens & Light, I realised the works were challenging for many reasons. The lack of a curator who understood the conceptual framework of my practice, was also a setback. At the time, I thought the new works were beyond the use of the normal sense organs, going into extrasensory perception.
NEW WORKS
From the beginning over two decades ago, the new works were proving to be challenging for many people in the visual arts. Especially curators and gatekeepers at the entry levels of the Fine Arts. Their approval are crucial, in regards to acceptance in the commercial world of the visual Arts.
Still fresh and relevant in many places, the fierce battles for Photography to be accepted into the cannon of the Fine Arts is legendary. In the last 10 years, more refined, my new works are from a vast range of ideas. But the the focus and viewpoints remain the same, making visible the psychic spiritual energies in nature, and its connections with the human condition in social interactions, including my own personal living experiences. Now, for all the written reasons above, I consider myself a visualist- more than an Artist.
With the fusion of Painting and photography disciplines in the style of abstraction, and without the use of digital software manipulation. Questions are frequently asked, what is this? The titles offer clues! The ideas, concepts, qualities, and methods of making are new, and not easily accessible. Will these ‘New Original Images’ be accepted into the Fine Arts commercial arena? Only time will tell – watch this space!