David Rohn

About the Photographs

The photos in the exhibition  of the artist in a performance situation (in this case a wedding dress) in public spaces, began with the desire to take performance to a so-called ‘intervention’ level in public urban spaces, to provoke  response when possible , and to document the event when merited.

   The photos were shot by the artist with a tripod mounted camera and a time lapse of several seconds to enter the frame.

  The artist wanted not only to take his performance situations to a non art public, but also  as an interactive performer, to try to catalyze a moment  where  public space, social interaction and a collective mood could be caught and saved  

   One of the reasons to take the work to the street is a desire to move beyond art -world -only performance events: the contemporary art community sometimes seems like a world apart; Here the purpose has been to try to in some way bridge back to the world ; to bring contemporary art to the non-involved public, and to report back to the ‘Art World’ a bit of what s going out there beyond the museums and galleries

    As an admirer of much of the work of photographer Jeff Wall, the artist has wanted to create events and images that tell a story of shared  space  and social  interaction.

 But  whereas Wall’s photos are  impeccably staged to the last detail, in this case the frame is set up more as a stage set where several takes may or may not document an archiv-able event where   the everyday environment is inhabited by a figure who represents a slightly unexpected situation; that encountering a familiar  situation  out of context, or an individual slightly out of syn with the expectable, can encourage people to examine assumptions about the spatial and social environment more closely.

    The reality of the street, of the neighborhood, of the ATM machine and the parking lot is the context of our time, it is the way we live; the public spaces we create and inhabit are  the defining context of our culture. So for this artist working in these types of spaces, trying to create a spontaneous ‘momenttary event’ in these spaces, and with the people who inhabit them, is a performance art  goal.

    Alongside the concern for a vital relational event that may reveal aspects of the assumptions we live under now, the concern for spatial composition and the way we  construct and inhabit them is also a concern.

     Our urban spaces are no less telling than those constructed by Giorgione, Hopper and Bacon, all of whom mirrored the complex spaces of their times and inhabited them with figures and interactive situations ( including those with solitary figures).