An exhibit of intriguing photographs titled “Natural” Africa by artist Ian van Coller is on display at the University Art Museum through Oct. 3. The images in the exhibit were photographed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and then digitally manipulated. Born in 1970 in Johannesburg, South Africa, van Coller grew up during the era of apartheid. He earned his MFA in Photography from UNM in 2003.
After high school, he realized he preferred using the expressive medium of photography to communicate his views on African social and political issues. In 1992, he moved to the United States to pursue an undergraduate fine arts degree at Arizona State University, Tempe, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1996.
Van Coller says he became fascinated with the idealized museum constructions of the African landscape and felt they embodied foreigner’s perceptions of natural Africa.
In an artist’s statement, van Coller said, “Though these dioramas are constructed illusions, they are meant to represent a reality of the wild. In this body of work, I have composed and cropped images of these dioramas to accentuate the anesthecized beauty of the natural scene, and I have digitally montaged various appropriated images and text onto the photographs. The images and text are meant to reorient the viewer—to develop a dialogue about what is “natural.”
University Art Museum hours are Tues. – Fri., 9 to 4; Tues. eve., 5 to 8; Sun., 1 to 4 and during most events at Popejoy Hall.
Contact: Greg Johnston, (505) 277-1816 or Michael Certo, (505) 277-7312
Posted by kwentworth at August 13, 2004 04:55 PM