Joseph Mougel - Artists Now Lecture Series
by Mandy Litwin
Joseph Mougel gave a great
artist talk at UW-Milwaukee this past week. It was an enjoyable experience as I
have not heard much in depth conversation about his work prior to that talk. I
had not known about the way that Joseph was introduced to photography – through
his time in the service. It makes it easier to understand his documentary style
approach to the photographic art world a lot more.
From what I heard him speak
about, it seems that the process is the most important part of creating work. While
there is an outcome to each piece that he is working towards, he is very
careful to document the whole process along the way. This became evident in the
works he made where he would dig a hole at specific time intervals throughout
the day, and then use the hole as another element to his work. It is very much
a performance of concept for him.
From Blanc
With his Blanc series, we see many portraits in which Joseph has
photographed people who have not served in the armed forces. However, they are
all within an age range that is of most priority for recruiting. The figures
are all completely camouflaged white against a white background. What initially
becomes visible is various outlines of a military uniform and the eyes of these
figures. He refers to moments of “the unknown” and “transformation”, as he puts
it.
No comments:
Post a Comment