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PRESS RELEASE – October, 2006
PHOTOGRAPHY COMMISSION: NOORDERLICHT and WALL HOUSE #2 FOUNDATION
Eight international photographers live and work in the Wall House
As a rule, architectural photography goes in search of an ideal image, a picture from which all imperfections have disappeared. Anyone actually visiting a building all too often sees another, much richer version. Wall House #2, situated on the Hoornse Meer in the city of Groningen, preeminently poses as an ideal image. The building, the only residence designed by the famous American architect and architectural theoretician John Hejduk (1929-2000) ever to be realized, was delivered in 2001. Since then it has stood as an architectural icon, cited in all important architecture catalogs.
The Wall House #2 Foundation and Noorderlicht have challenged eight international photographers to break through the ideal image of the Wall House. They have been asked not to look at the building as it should be, but as it actually comes across to us, or rather, to the photographers. How is the house used? How does it sit in its surroundings? How do people look upon it? These are questions that call up a considerably less polished image, an image that says much more about the architecture than the perfect portrait does. That is the sort of architectural photography that Noorderlicht and the Wall House Foundation are looking for.
The photographers Thomas Kellner (Germany), Bill Jacobson (US), Beth Yarnelle Edwards (US), Isabelle Hayeur (Canada), Wijnanda Deroo (Netherlands), Danwen Xing (China), Mitra Tabrizian (Iran/England) and Anoek Steketee (Netherlands) will take turns staying in the Wall House. In the summer of 2007 their experiences will be presented in an international photo book and at an exhibition in the Noorderlicht Photo Gallery. At the same time, an exhibition on John Hejduk will be presented in Wall House #2.
During their stay in Wall House #2 the participating photographers will be available for the press.
The Wall House is challenging architecture, par excellence. A freestanding wall 18 meters long and 14 meters high is at its heart, against which spaces are placed on either side. These spaces – the living room, studio, bedroom, etc. – are separate from one another, which emphasizes their separate functions. In this way Wall House ingeniously interweaves architecture and thinking about architecture. It is impossible to walk through the building oblivious to the architect’s intent. One is continually involved in confrontations that force the mind to focus on the traditional ideas about how a house should be put together. It should not be surprising that its architect, John Hejduk, suggested that good architecture by definition prompts reflection and discussion: ‘The architect is responsible for the spirit of a thought.’
Noorderlicht Photo Gallery > Akerkhof 12 Groningen > Tues-Sun 11-6 > free >www.noorderlicht.com
Information, visual materials and requests for interviews: Marc Floor +31 (0)50 3182227 / publicity@noorderlicht.com
About the photographers:
Thomas Kellner (Germany, b. 1966) made his name with his idiosyncratic collages of famous structures such as Big Ben and Notre Dame. Like a photographic architect he ‘demolishes’ these structures by cutting them to pieces photographically. After that he builds them again according to his own rules, in that way furnishes them with a new meaning. (www.tkellner.com) Stay at Wall House already completed.
Bill Jacobson (US, b. 1955) has a characteristic, deliberately out of focus way of photographing. He is famous for his street photos of New York, which transform the environment into a poetic shadow play. Jacobson’s work has been acquired by international museums such as the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art, both located in New York. (www.renabranstengallery.com/jacobson.html) Stay at Wall House already completed.
In her work Beth Yarnelle Edwards (US, b. 1956) focuses on life in the suburbs, the safe neighborhoods in which the middle class lead comfortable lives. She asks her amateur models to act out their own lives, with a ‘larger-than-life’ theatricality as a result. In the Wall House she constructed the lives of fictional residents. (www.bethyarnelleedwards.com) Stay at Wall House already completed.
Isabelle Hayeur (Canada, b. 1969) specializes in recording modern, generally deserted landscapes that are transected by constructions such as roads, dikes, housing developments and viaducts, in order to examine the boundaries that man builds in nature. In her work she will move the Wall House to another set of surroundings. (www.isabelle-hayeur.com) At the Wall House November 6 through 10.
Mitra Tabrizian (Iran) was born in Teheran and studied film and photography in London, where she now lives and works. In her work she combines documentary photography, film, reportage and advertising. She often literally places people in situations where, at first sight, they do not belong. At the Wall House from November 16 through 21 and mid-December.
Wijnanda Deroo (Netherlands, b. 1959) was a professor at the Art Academy in Anheim and the Academy St. Joost in Breda. She is widely known for her photography of desolated interiors, which still breathe the presence of the people who lived there. Her photo’s are part of the collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Holland, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Deroo was also participating in the Noorderlicht Photo-festival 2006, Another Asia. At the Wall House from January 2 through 6, 2007.
As a talented Dutch photographer, Anoek Steketee (Netherlands, b. 1974) does portraits on the boundary between fiction and reality. She asked passers-by in Havana and Teheran to be characters in an imaginary film scene in which they play themselves. Her series on Iran was seen at the Noorderlicht Photo Festival 2005, Traces and Omens. At the Wall House from January 22 through 28, 2007.
Danwen Xing (China, b. 1967) is one of China’s most prominent photographers. She began photographing when the medium was still in its infancy in her country. Danwen Xing focuses chiefly on the lightning-fast changes in the world’s metropolises. (www.danwen.com) At the Wall House in mid-January.
More information and visual materials: www.noorderlicht.com and www.wallhouse.nl
PHOTOGRAPHY COMMISSION: NOORDERLICHT and WALL HOUSE #2 FOUNDATION
Eight international photographers live and work in the Wall House
As a rule, architectural photography goes in search of an ideal image, a picture from which all imperfections have disappeared. Anyone actually visiting a building all too often sees another, much richer version. Wall House #2, situated on the Hoornse Meer in the city of Groningen, preeminently poses as an ideal image. The building, the only residence designed by the famous American architect and architectural theoretician John Hejduk (1929-2000) ever to be realized, was delivered in 2001. Since then it has stood as an architectural icon, cited in all important architecture catalogs.
The Wall House #2 Foundation and Noorderlicht have challenged eight international photographers to break through the ideal image of the Wall House. They have been asked not to look at the building as it should be, but as it actually comes across to us, or rather, to the photographers. How is the house used? How does it sit in its surroundings? How do people look upon it? These are questions that call up a considerably less polished image, an image that says much more about the architecture than the perfect portrait does. That is the sort of architectural photography that Noorderlicht and the Wall House Foundation are looking for.
The photographers Thomas Kellner (Germany), Bill Jacobson (US), Beth Yarnelle Edwards (US), Isabelle Hayeur (Canada), Wijnanda Deroo (Netherlands), Danwen Xing (China), Mitra Tabrizian (Iran/England) and Anoek Steketee (Netherlands) will take turns staying in the Wall House. In the summer of 2007 their experiences will be presented in an international photo book and at an exhibition in the Noorderlicht Photo Gallery. At the same time, an exhibition on John Hejduk will be presented in Wall House #2.
During their stay in Wall House #2 the participating photographers will be available for the press.
The Wall House is challenging architecture, par excellence. A freestanding wall 18 meters long and 14 meters high is at its heart, against which spaces are placed on either side. These spaces – the living room, studio, bedroom, etc. – are separate from one another, which emphasizes their separate functions. In this way Wall House ingeniously interweaves architecture and thinking about architecture. It is impossible to walk through the building oblivious to the architect’s intent. One is continually involved in confrontations that force the mind to focus on the traditional ideas about how a house should be put together. It should not be surprising that its architect, John Hejduk, suggested that good architecture by definition prompts reflection and discussion: ‘The architect is responsible for the spirit of a thought.’
Noorderlicht Photo Gallery > Akerkhof 12 Groningen > Tues-Sun 11-6 > free >www.noorderlicht.com
Information, visual materials and requests for interviews: Marc Floor +31 (0)50 3182227 / publicity@noorderlicht.com
About the photographers:
Thomas Kellner (Germany, b. 1966) made his name with his idiosyncratic collages of famous structures such as Big Ben and Notre Dame. Like a photographic architect he ‘demolishes’ these structures by cutting them to pieces photographically. After that he builds them again according to his own rules, in that way furnishes them with a new meaning. (www.tkellner.com) Stay at Wall House already completed.
Bill Jacobson (US, b. 1955) has a characteristic, deliberately out of focus way of photographing. He is famous for his street photos of New York, which transform the environment into a poetic shadow play. Jacobson’s work has been acquired by international museums such as the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art, both located in New York. (www.renabranstengallery.com/jacobson.html) Stay at Wall House already completed.
In her work Beth Yarnelle Edwards (US, b. 1956) focuses on life in the suburbs, the safe neighborhoods in which the middle class lead comfortable lives. She asks her amateur models to act out their own lives, with a ‘larger-than-life’ theatricality as a result. In the Wall House she constructed the lives of fictional residents. (www.bethyarnelleedwards.com) Stay at Wall House already completed.
Isabelle Hayeur (Canada, b. 1969) specializes in recording modern, generally deserted landscapes that are transected by constructions such as roads, dikes, housing developments and viaducts, in order to examine the boundaries that man builds in nature. In her work she will move the Wall House to another set of surroundings. (www.isabelle-hayeur.com) At the Wall House November 6 through 10.
Mitra Tabrizian (Iran) was born in Teheran and studied film and photography in London, where she now lives and works. In her work she combines documentary photography, film, reportage and advertising. She often literally places people in situations where, at first sight, they do not belong. At the Wall House from November 16 through 21 and mid-December.
Wijnanda Deroo (Netherlands, b. 1959) was a professor at the Art Academy in Anheim and the Academy St. Joost in Breda. She is widely known for her photography of desolated interiors, which still breathe the presence of the people who lived there. Her photo’s are part of the collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Holland, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Deroo was also participating in the Noorderlicht Photo-festival 2006, Another Asia. At the Wall House from January 2 through 6, 2007.
As a talented Dutch photographer, Anoek Steketee (Netherlands, b. 1974) does portraits on the boundary between fiction and reality. She asked passers-by in Havana and Teheran to be characters in an imaginary film scene in which they play themselves. Her series on Iran was seen at the Noorderlicht Photo Festival 2005, Traces and Omens. At the Wall House from January 22 through 28, 2007.
Danwen Xing (China, b. 1967) is one of China’s most prominent photographers. She began photographing when the medium was still in its infancy in her country. Danwen Xing focuses chiefly on the lightning-fast changes in the world’s metropolises. (www.danwen.com) At the Wall House in mid-January.
More information and visual materials: www.noorderlicht.com and www.wallhouse.nl