Handtmann Photography Lecture Series: Arthur Ou

I attended the Handtmann Photography Lecture by Arthur Ou on Nov. 23, 2009. He is an artist based in New York and teaches at the Parsons The New School of Design. His work has been exhibited all around the world, including Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Beijing, Berlin, Taipei and many other places. I was especially interested in learning about him as an artist because he was born in Taiwan - the place where my parents were born.

His photography implements many different media. Ou says he likes "translating from one medium to another", and this can be seen in many of his photos of dirt mounds contrasted with ink splatters. He talked about the presence of motifs in his work, and that he likes reusing certain motifs because it presents the action of viewing photos in a more specified way. He mentions how photos are very "slippery things" because a lot of external work is necessary for the photo to have meaning.

For much of his work, he said that he was inspired by many household things he saw in his home and his friend's homes. Statues and vases were some of the objects he was inspired by. Furthermore, he mentioned the decorative walls often seen in Chinese gardens or backyards - he made these part of his photos because of the repeating motif and elegant shape of the walls. Many of his earth works were made with dirt and he repeatedly rearranged it until he achieved a composition he liked.

In the Taipei Biennial, Ou had an installation where he had, in the middle of the room, a large yet simple fireplace. He used this to contextualize his pieces with something that was more "familiar and domestic". I thought this was clever because just merely showing your work is perhaps not enough anymore - the idea of contextualizing is important for viewers and can give an entirely different experience for people looking at the artwork.

For some pieces, Ou had a tendency to have double objects for subjects. He said that he intended this to be a reference to the history between Taiwan and China, which I thought was very interesting.

He concluded with his thoughts about the German word aufheben, which means "to preserve, elevate, or cancel". To him, this represents the direct process of photographing something. For example, the initial drive to take a photo could be to preserve something or an action. And then a subject can be transformed and the original experience of taking the photo is cancelled out. This word resonated with him and made him feel that photography is very much a part of the human experience.