My work is a constant questioning of the medium of photography, of its two-dimensionality, display, and subject matter. I work with the space of the photograph, to find ways to extend the space of representation into the real space of the viewer as well as to show a space beyond the picture plane.
—Elisa Sighicelli
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present recent works by Elisa Sighicelli.
Sighicelli's latest body of work uses light, objects, and singular installation methods to explore the physical qualities of the photograph, expanding the image beyond the two-dimensional picture plane. In Untitled (Tape) (2011), she joins the photograph of a sheet of back-lit paper with a fragment of tape placed on each side with an actual piece of tape, placed directly onto the photographic image, thus creating three distinct spatial planes, wherein two photographic representations merge with the tangible object. In Untitled (Leningrad at Night) (2011) she takes a photograph printed from an old Soviet slide, and artfully folds and installs it in the corner of a room, transforming a banal image into an architectural aspect of its chosen space. The lightbox Untitled (Blue Fabric) (2012) features a swathe of blue fabric, bathed in sunlight from an unseen window. Certain areas of the photograph have been masked by applying black paint to the reverse side of the lightbox, so that the manipulated light creates a glow around the edges of the fabric. Light, used here like a painter's palette, acquires a sculptural quality that unites the second and third dimensions.
The works in the exhibition explore the relationship between representation and reality in diverse ways. Some engage with the idea of trompe l'oeil, while others explore the possibiblity of creating images that balance the concerns of abstraction with the reality of the object photographed. In photography the mechanics of display—mounting, framing—are usually assumed, however Sighicelli proposes a dramatic re-thinking by making the subject matter of the photograph coincide with its display, as in the case of Untitled (Punctum) (2012) and Untitled (Wood) (2012). In Untitled (Puntum), a single nail is used to fasten an image of three brightly colored, intertwined pieces of string to the wall. The nail also gives the illusion of being a part of the photograph; the means by which the photographic string is joined together. Untitled (Wood) (2012) is a photograph of a sheet of wood, mounted on two actual slabs of the same wood Sighicelli photographed, to form a three-dimensional hanging object—here, the display exists as an integral part of the work.
Elisa Sighicelli was born in Turin, Italy in 1968 where she lives and works today. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Exhibitions include "Santiago", Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2000); "No World Without You: Reflection and Identity in New British Art," Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel (2001); Fondation Salomon, Alex, France (2003); "Guardami, la Percezione del Video", Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy (2005); Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (2007); Italian Pavilion at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2009); "Silences Where Things Abandon Themselves", Museum of Comtemporary Art, Zagreb, Republic of Croatia; and "Marking Time," Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2012).
