Erin Shirreff
Friday, 28 September 2012
Work from her oeuvre.
“…Erin Shirreff … among them—are addressing (or redressing) the issues attendant on becoming familiar with an artwork through its photo- graphic reproduction.6 Most of them have a studio-based practice that involves more than one medium—some are not even primarily photographers—but thinking about photography is central to what they do. Often their work includes handmade objects as well as photographic reproductions from any number of sources. They might build a sculpture based on a reproduction of an existing sculpture. They might videotape or photograph an object or setup they have created, destroying it after (and sometimes during) its docu- mentation, or create an installation whose sole purpose is to generate photographs. Viewers consider the artwork before real- izing that the object or situation they are contemplating no longer exists (a realization that is sometimes accomplished by reading some form of accompanying text). All that is left is the photographic trace—an objet manqué, as I think of it, using a somewhat antiquated art historical descriptor…” – excerpt from Photography and the Objet Manqué, Art in America via Lisa Cooley.