Reduced Performing: Breathing

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photoás palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding oneás breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that donát seem to be literally there.

My project with Beauty at the End of the Season (2002 - 2006) was to develop a series of images that reduce narrative assumptions of figuration regarding the ageing body. Consumer culture defines beauty through the ideal of youth culture. In this context, discussion of maturity presumes the sentimentality of a mournful crone. I used the tall, spare roses to pose as a body proxy. In order to address the older body of experience as a valued beauty, I use the mixed temperature lighting of my garden at night to saturate color. The cameraás long exposures accrue detail that flattens space and suggests silence.

Measurements: 127 x 99.06 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Whatcha Really Really Want?,[installation view]

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55391

Description: Whatcha Really Really Want, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: dimensions variées

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: colour gelatin prints, lambda prints

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Ballots

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55405

Description: digital prints for viewer voting; Whatcha Really Really Want?, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: 5.715 x 10.16 cm/po

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: digital prints

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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This Week’s Top Ten

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55406

Description: selection of prints changes weekly based on voting results; Whatcha Really Really Want?, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: 27.94 x 35.56 cm/po chaque

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: 42 colour prints

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Top Ten: Nikki 10116

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55407

Description: Whatcha Really Really Want, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: 27.94 x 35.56 cm/po

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: colour gelatin print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Beauty at the End of the Season: #7

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72873

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photoás palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding oneás breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that donát seem to be literally there.

My project with Beauty at the End of the Season (2002 - 2006) was to develop a series of images that reduce narrative assumptions of figuration regarding the ageing body. Consumer culture defines beauty through the ideal of youth culture. In this context, discussion of maturity presumes the sentimentality of a mournful crone. I used the tall, spare roses to pose as a body proxy. In order to address the older body of experience as a valued beauty, I use the mixed temperature lighting of my garden at night to saturate color. The cameraás long exposures accrue detail that flattens space and suggests silence.

Measurements: 182.88 x 66.04 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Vote Paula 10113

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55402

Description: Whatcha Really Really Want, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: 30.48 x 22.86 cm/po et 101.6 x 81.28 cm/po

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: colour gelatin print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Vote Thomas 10126

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55404

Description: Whatcha Really Really Want, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: 30.48 x 22.86 cm/po et 101.6 x 81.28 cm/po

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: colour gelatin print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Top Ten: Greg 10125

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 55408

Description: Whatcha Really Really Want, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Ontario, 2004

Measurements: 27.94 x 35.56 cm/po

Collection:

Date Made: 2004

Materials: colour gelatin print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Beauty at the End of the Season: #11

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72875

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photoás palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding oneás breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that donát seem to be literally there.

My project with Beauty at the End of the Season (2002 - 2006) was to develop a series of images that reduce narrative assumptions of figuration regarding the ageing body. Consumer culture defines beauty through the ideal of youth culture. In this context, discussion of maturity presumes the sentimentality of a mournful crone. I used the tall, spare roses to pose as a body proxy. In order to address the older body of experience as a valued beauty, I use the mixed temperature lighting of my garden at night to saturate color. The cameraás long exposures accrue detail that flattens space and suggests silence.

Measurements: 182.88 x 66.04 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2006

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Beauty at the End of the Season: #9

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72874

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photoás palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding oneás breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that donát seem to be literally there.

My project with Beauty at the End of the Season (2002 - 2006) was to develop a series of images that reduce narrative assumptions of figuration regarding the ageing body. Consumer culture defines beauty through the ideal of youth culture. In this context, discussion of maturity presumes the sentimentality of a mournful crone. I used the tall, spare roses to pose as a body proxy. In order to address the older body of experience as a valued beauty, I use the mixed temperature lighting of my garden at night to saturate color. The cameraás long exposures accrue detail that flattens space and suggests silence.

Measurements: 182.88 x 66.04 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2006

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Extended Breathing #4

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72879

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photo¿s palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding one¿s breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that don¿t seem to be literally there.

Extending Breath (2008 - ongoing) is the second series where my interests push analogue photography beyond its traditional parameters in order to flatten space, and resonate color. In this series I return to the picture frame to perform. However, I remain interested in how far I can reduce the activity¿s narrative description and still retain a body-reading that reveals itself in time. This work requires me to stand still for a set duration; accordingly, chest movement and torso sway are recorded while my feet remain as crisp and detailed as the landscape. At sixty, can I stand perfectly still for an hour? What may have been endurance at one point in the project¿s development now becomes gesture. Activity recorded with traditionally slow shutter speeds encapsulates the action to provide a sense of the gesture¿s full movement. In excess, the recorded activity stops being a photographic document, and the body is subsumed into the image without denying its performative element.

Measurements: 121.92 x 152.4 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2008-09

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Extended Breathing #2

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72877

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photo¿s palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding one¿s breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that don¿t seem to be literally there.

Extending Breath (2008 - ongoing) is the second series where my interests push analogue photography beyond its traditional parameters in order to flatten space, and resonate color. In this series I return to the picture frame to perform. However, I remain interested in how far I can reduce the activity¿s narrative description and still retain a body-reading that reveals itself in time. This work requires me to stand still for a set duration; accordingly, chest movement and torso sway are recorded while my feet remain as crisp and detailed as the landscape. At sixty, can I stand perfectly still for an hour? What may have been endurance at one point in the project¿s development now becomes gesture. Activity recorded with traditionally slow shutter speeds encapsulates the action to provide a sense of the gesture¿s full movement. In excess, the recorded activity stops being a photographic document, and the body is subsumed into the image without denying its performative element.

Measurements: 121.92 x 152.4 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2008-09

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Extended Breathing #1

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72876

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photo¿s palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding one¿s breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that don¿t seem to be literally there.

Extending Breath (2008 - ongoing) is the second series where my interests push analogue photography beyond its traditional parameters in order to flatten space, and resonate color. In this series I return to the picture frame to perform. However, I remain interested in how far I can reduce the activity¿s narrative description and still retain a body-reading that reveals itself in time. This work requires me to stand still for a set duration; accordingly, chest movement and torso sway are recorded while my feet remain as crisp and detailed as the landscape. At sixty, can I stand perfectly still for an hour? What may have been endurance at one point in the project¿s development now becomes gesture. Activity recorded with traditionally slow shutter speeds encapsulates the action to provide a sense of the gesture¿s full movement. In excess, the recorded activity stops being a photographic document, and the body is subsumed into the image without denying its performative element.

Measurements: 121.92 x 152.4 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2008-09

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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A Long Good-Bye

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72881

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photo¿s palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding one¿s breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that don¿t seem to be literally there.

A Long Good Bye (work in progress) re-inserts narrative for a Concordia University commission to tribute the Grey Nun¿s Convent in Montreal. Concordia purchased their property with the proviso that the Order will be allowed to be the keepers of the convent for twenty years. For the commission, I borrowed techniques of the hour long exposure and performed in the convent¿s crypt. A Long Good Bye was designed in response to a parallel conjecture of how I might feel if everything that I have ever believed in would be gone when I die.

Measurements: 76.2 x 101.6 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2008-09

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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A Long Good-Bye

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72880

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photo¿s palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding one¿s breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that don¿t seem to be literally there.

A Long Good Bye (work in progress) re-inserts narrative for a Concordia University commission to tribute the Grey Nun¿s Convent in Montreal. Concordia purchased their property with the proviso that the Order will be allowed to be the keepers of the convent for twenty years. For the commission, I borrowed techniques of the hour long exposure and performed in the convent¿s crypt. A Long Good Bye was designed in response to a parallel conjecture of how I might feel if everything that I have ever believed in would be gone when I die.

Measurements: 76.2 x 101.6 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2008-09

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Extended Breathing #3

Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72878

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photo¿s palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding one¿s breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that don¿t seem to be literally there.

Extending Breath (2008 - ongoing) is the second series where my interests push analogue photography beyond its traditional parameters in order to flatten space, and resonate color. In this series I return to the picture frame to perform. However, I remain interested in how far I can reduce the activity¿s narrative description and still retain a body-reading that reveals itself in time. This work requires me to stand still for a set duration; accordingly, chest movement and torso sway are recorded while my feet remain as crisp and detailed as the landscape. At sixty, can I stand perfectly still for an hour? What may have been endurance at one point in the project¿s development now becomes gesture. Activity recorded with traditionally slow shutter speeds encapsulates the action to provide a sense of the gesture¿s full movement. In excess, the recorded activity stops being a photographic document, and the body is subsumed into the image without denying its performative element.

Measurements: 121.92 x 152.4 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2008-09

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Artist: Suzy Lake

Work ID: 72882

Description: In 2002, I began photographing the roses in my garden. They are tall. By the end of the season they are lanky, but persist in blooming well into the November frosts. To elevate this as remarkable, I photographed them with long exposures in low, mixed temperature lighting conditions that broaden the photoás palette to a lush, painterly one. These long exposures result in very still images. It is like holding oneás breath.

This was the beginning of work that holds an uncanny duration. In each of the four series, I use technical photographic elements in ways to provoke phenomena that make associations to the body or body experience that donát seem to be literally there.

There is neither analogue camera processes nor lush mixed temperature lighting of the landscape in Reduced Performing (2009 - ongoing). Slightly larger than life size prints record the performer breathing, blinking or crying against a flat background for the duration of the exposure. I choose involuntary movements as the performance activity because they are usually over-looked or taken for granted. The performance is progressively recorded by a large flat-bed scanner over seven minutes. The scanner describes the figure with flat lighting and excessive detail that produces the stillness that becomes a peculiar cross between a stylized catalogue lay-out and an over-rendered avatar. This is broken when the temporal movement is perceived. Against all of this stillness, the body again addresses duration.

Measurements: 182.88 x 76.2 cm

Collection:

Date Made: 2009

Materials: chromagenic print

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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