Lisa Oppenheim : Parallax View

‘Parallax View’ is Lisa Oppenheim’s (1975, NY) first solo exhibition at galerie Juliètte Jongma, Amsterdam.

The term parallax describes an experience in which the ‘apparent displacement of an object caused by a change in the position from which it is viewed ‘. The easiest example to describe this phenomena is the way that objects appear to be in different places depending on which eye you look through. This way of thinking about displacement, visually, temporally and otherwise, is an important part of Lisa Oppenheim’s artistic practice.

Story Study Print (2005), is comprised of two sixteen millimeter films based on children’s alphabet posters. One projection shows only texts such as “H is for home”, while the other side shows images that are visual representations of the texts. However, there is a double displacement that soon becomes apparent. One is a text and image displacement. The projectors have not been synced so the text and image relationship slips. This continuous recombining of elements opens potential for new meanings to develop within the space of the piece. The second kind of displacement is historical. The texts are from two radical alphabet posters, one from the Syracuse Cultural Workers entitled “The Alternative Alphabet Poster for Little and Big People” and the other from 1970 entitled “The Black ABC’s”. Both posters represent attempts to internalize a political and identity consciousness in young children. However, many of the meanings of terms included in the original images have changed over time. By re-filming the visual representations of the texts in the present, Oppenheim takes into account the ways both the political and visual connotations of these words have changed.

The prints in the back of the gallery take on issues of displacement in a different way. Upside-Down Portraits (2005) are images from the U.S. Library of Congress’ daguerreotype collection in which there is no discernable trace of the person represented. The titles become absurd, the fact they are upside-down points to the lack of relationship to a photographed subject. Unidentified Elderly Woman with Cap is nothing more than the patterns that emerge from degrading emulsion. Also on show is a piece from a recent series, Autochromes. The title refers to the source material of the image, a long abandoned color photography technique in which the positives produced were very unstable and subject to profound degradation. The large format of the print from this series makes an oblique reference to monochrome painting. Lisa Oppenheim’s work shows a clear interest in American history and it’s archival inheritance. By researching or creating new archives by re-using found footage, Oppenheim creates contemporary counterparts of older imagery. Through re-use, connections are made between different moments in time. These connections serve as the basis for the way she looks at how history is seen and made. Lisa Oppenheim is curently a resident artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In April 2005 she had a solo show at the Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam and will have another solo show at Buro Leeuwarden in Leeuwarden this fall.

Lisa Oppenheim
Parallax View