On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
> Seeing Bechers' work at the Walker Art Center in Mpls I was appalled to see
> spots of silvering out creeping in their work.
If anybody has any old prints they're about to "bin" (as the Brits so
charmingly put it) because they're "silvered out", they can send them to
me, I'll pay postage... In fact I have 3 on the wall to my left, utterly
nondescript photos rendered exquisite by plating in the shadows and
background turning tan. But the most beautiful I've ever seen was in a
show of naked people photographs at Robert Mann gallery. A woman
photographer of the 30s, name I didn't know & now forget... a fine
photograph to begin with, rendered sublime by the silvering...
Is "Becher" (Bernd and Hilla?) the water silo duo? I'm a fan of their
work & would guess, if the "silvering out" is as usual, it's glorious...
And, AFAIK, not unarchival in that form... (?)
We have BTW discussed the cause of that silvering out on this list, but as
I recall... What is the authoritative answer? Incomplete removal of
fixer?
> ....witness the loss of the 2 million dollar Marc Quinn sculpture head
> of his own frozen blood that melted all over Saatchi's floor when the
> workmen turned off the freezer accidentally. This is one mere example among
> many curatorial nightmares.
I would say rather that a member of the Green Party pulled the plug on
purpose, as protest against art that consumes non-renewable energy, ie.,
round the clock electricity (& not just the energy to keep it frozen, but
the energy to deal with the heat generated by the equipment to keep it
frozen... & so forth)....
Meanwhile of course the loss to posterity is obviously on a par with
destruction of Venice. But just for curiosity: About the "2-million
dollars"... Is that what Saatchi paid for it? What did it cost to make?
(I daresay Quinn has got the mould in a vault somewhere... maybe he'll
re-edition.)
J.
Received on Tue Feb 3 16:06:57 2004
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