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November 10, 2005
The Deconstruction of the Figure-Ground Relationship, or Witty Photographs
Traditional western art -- with its interest in creating three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane -- dictates a specific relationship between the figure (the main object of the painting) and the ground (everything else). The figure sits on the ground, in the ground, distinct from the ground. The average snapshot also echoes this relationship, with the figure being separated from the background by perspective, lighting, color, or sharpness. Look through your photo album for pictures of your last vacation. You are standing on the beach, in front of the Capitol, in a boat. You are a figure in space.
The Japanese were never as fascinated by this idea of inserting figures into space. Japanese ukiyo-e prints treat the paper as flat. There is little concern for illusionism, resulting in artworks that function as designs rather than mirrors of reality. There is no sense of progressing into space. Instead, a clump of peonies floats on a gold background. The crisp outlines of a tree, a river, and a bird give no hint of atmosphere or spatial relationship. The white of snow on tree branches dissolves seamlessly into the white of a blank background.
All that to say: while Noel was finishing his interviews at Carnegie-Mellon on Tuesday, I wandered between campuses, snapping pictures in the flat, gray, Pittsburgh light. While tremendously unexciting, this lighting also functioned as the great deconstructor of plane and space by removing one of the key ways that our minds perceive depth. Statues -- three-dimensional forms -- became decorative silhouettes that could be layered on decorative backgrounds as if making a collage of magazine cut-outs. And I discovered something: while depth-less photography is rarely praised, it does allow you to play with reality and scale in a weird, witty, almost surreal way.
The gist of all this formal theory is simple: look at the pictures and see for yourself. Sometimes, flat is just funnier.
Art | By elissa | 02:17 PM
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