Cultural Development Consulting

~

Dreams and Resurrection

Peter Wiklund and Mariano Icaza: two photographers who use their own bodies in their work without making self-portraits; both presenting work at the Kaunas Photo Festival portfolio reviews.

The Swedish artist Peter Wiklund uses pin-hole and other low-tech cameras to create darkly mysterious imagery suggesting the world of dreams. The works are created during a kind of performance that remains only partly within the control of the artist; something he welcomes for its surreal and serendipitous results. The flattening effect of the pin-hole camera and the shimmering translucence of the body arising from the long exposures evoke an etherial but slightly sinister narrative of predatory trees and fleeting figures.

More about  Peter Wiklund here.

~

~

~

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~

Mariano Icaza wants to reanimate ‘dead’ photographs. His starting point is Roland Barthe’s claim that the photograph reproduces something which has already ceased to live, lost to the past even as it is captured on film. “My role as an artist,” Mariano says, “is to give life to what died.” He seeks to achieve this through a process of performative homage, recreating famous portraits from the history of photography in which he now plays the role of both the original author and the subject.

From Aleksandr Rodchenko to Cindy Sherman, Paul Strand to Andres Serrano, Mariano Icaza takes his alter-ego ‘Atos Alte’ on a mythical quest to be remade by the great photographers of the past. And as his own identity is effaced, the once-dead images arise in the ritual of photographic mimesis.

More about Mariani Icaza here.

~

~

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
~
Images:

1. © Peter Wiklund ‘The Attack’ from “Dreamland”
2. © Peter Wiklund ‘Silent Tree’ from “Dreamland”
3. © Peter Wiklund ‘Hiding’ from “Dreamland”
4. © Mariano Icaza “Atos Alte is always ready to be photographed Aleksandr Rodchenko”
5. © Mariano Icaza “Atos Alte transforms himself to be photographed by Cindy Sherman”
~