Sean Snyder
21 Jun - 02 Sep 2007
SEAN SNYDER
Recent projects
June 21st - September 02nd, 2007
Curator: Leire Vergara
sala rekalde presents the first solo exhibition of the American artist Sean Snyder in Spain. The show brings together six of his most recent projects outlining his research based artistic practice focused on the processes of the media.
Having worked with extensive case studies involving the ways ideology and the media shape architecture and urban planning, Snyder's recent work has, visual aspects of political representation and the actual mechanics of image production.
The projects presented in sala rekalde, focus on these recent developments in Snyder's work. The exhibition outlines the artist's methodology and use of archives, opening up source material to the viewer's examination.
Sean Snyder: works in the exhibition
Analepsis (2003-2004) is a video that works with the depiction of location in satellite television news broadcasts. The short sequences are comprised of re-establishing shots (reminders or updates on scene changes) used to visually orient viewers to the geographic location of a report. The footage, isolated from sound and narrative, is edited into a continuum according to camera techniques, exposing the cinematic language inherent in news coverage.
The Site (2004-2005) is a text and image based work that analyses various reports produced by governmental information services and western news media upon the capture of Saddam Hussein. Overlapping accounts and visual evidence produce similar, but inconsistent depictions of a restricted place and incident that no longer exists in reality. Questions of accessibility, timing and the relation of reporters to their subject bring into question the newsworthiness of the material.
Untitled, (Archive Iraq) (2003-2005) consists of thematically grouped amateur images produced by military forces and contractors excavated from digital file-sharing sites on the Internet. Exposing a layer of what would remain largely unseen pictures, overt representations of war and violence are excluded, focusing on the banal subjects of amateur photography. Presenting a perspective different from that of the embedded reporter, the selected subjects evoke notions of tourist, classical and criminal photography.
Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars (2004-2005) is a video essay that combines still images and video footage from amateur, governmental and photojournalistic sources with an essayist commentary. Exploring the conventions and ethics of photojournalism, the video outlines decades of foreign corporate involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Schema (Television) (2005-2007) is an ongoing project that questions television's authoritativeness as a source of information. Working with categorical indexes of programming themes from satellite television, the video utilizes the potential of the remote control as a device of unpredictable montage. Using Dziga Vertov's (with Rodchenko's subtitles) silent newsreels (Kino Pravda) from the 1920s as a formal and editing model, the video emphasizes impossibility of attributing truthfulness to the moving image.
Optics.Compression.Propaganda (2006-2007) is the general subheading for a series of experiments working with image production and the role visual technologies play in the construction of ideology. The Carl Zeiss Archive serves as a conceptual framework for the project, illustrating the importance of optical devices in recent history.
Sean Snyder: the publication
To accompany the exhibition, a catalogue will bring together the projects included in the show, with essays by Magali Arriola, Mexican art critic and independent curator, Olga Bryukhovetska, Professor of Cultural Studies at Kiev University and a conversation between Sean Snyder and Leire Vergara, curator of the exhibition.
Recent projects
June 21st - September 02nd, 2007
Curator: Leire Vergara
sala rekalde presents the first solo exhibition of the American artist Sean Snyder in Spain. The show brings together six of his most recent projects outlining his research based artistic practice focused on the processes of the media.
Having worked with extensive case studies involving the ways ideology and the media shape architecture and urban planning, Snyder's recent work has, visual aspects of political representation and the actual mechanics of image production.
The projects presented in sala rekalde, focus on these recent developments in Snyder's work. The exhibition outlines the artist's methodology and use of archives, opening up source material to the viewer's examination.
Sean Snyder: works in the exhibition
Analepsis (2003-2004) is a video that works with the depiction of location in satellite television news broadcasts. The short sequences are comprised of re-establishing shots (reminders or updates on scene changes) used to visually orient viewers to the geographic location of a report. The footage, isolated from sound and narrative, is edited into a continuum according to camera techniques, exposing the cinematic language inherent in news coverage.
The Site (2004-2005) is a text and image based work that analyses various reports produced by governmental information services and western news media upon the capture of Saddam Hussein. Overlapping accounts and visual evidence produce similar, but inconsistent depictions of a restricted place and incident that no longer exists in reality. Questions of accessibility, timing and the relation of reporters to their subject bring into question the newsworthiness of the material.
Untitled, (Archive Iraq) (2003-2005) consists of thematically grouped amateur images produced by military forces and contractors excavated from digital file-sharing sites on the Internet. Exposing a layer of what would remain largely unseen pictures, overt representations of war and violence are excluded, focusing on the banal subjects of amateur photography. Presenting a perspective different from that of the embedded reporter, the selected subjects evoke notions of tourist, classical and criminal photography.
Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars (2004-2005) is a video essay that combines still images and video footage from amateur, governmental and photojournalistic sources with an essayist commentary. Exploring the conventions and ethics of photojournalism, the video outlines decades of foreign corporate involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Schema (Television) (2005-2007) is an ongoing project that questions television's authoritativeness as a source of information. Working with categorical indexes of programming themes from satellite television, the video utilizes the potential of the remote control as a device of unpredictable montage. Using Dziga Vertov's (with Rodchenko's subtitles) silent newsreels (Kino Pravda) from the 1920s as a formal and editing model, the video emphasizes impossibility of attributing truthfulness to the moving image.
Optics.Compression.Propaganda (2006-2007) is the general subheading for a series of experiments working with image production and the role visual technologies play in the construction of ideology. The Carl Zeiss Archive serves as a conceptual framework for the project, illustrating the importance of optical devices in recent history.
Sean Snyder: the publication
To accompany the exhibition, a catalogue will bring together the projects included in the show, with essays by Magali Arriola, Mexican art critic and independent curator, Olga Bryukhovetska, Professor of Cultural Studies at Kiev University and a conversation between Sean Snyder and Leire Vergara, curator of the exhibition.