An essay on
Jill Greenberg`s works, Tandis magazine, No.91, 2007, Tehran, Iran.
______________________________________________________________________
Association
of Form and Expression in End Time
Ali
Ettehad
End
Times is the title for a collection of manipulated images by the American
artist Jill Greenberg which were on exhibition in April 28th, 2006 in Los
Angeles. Regarding its political view and harsh and caustic perspective, this
collection was praised and complimented by elite societies all over the world
and thus the exhibition was extended another four months. Jill Greenberg whose
previous series ‘Monkey Portraits”, had garnered her significant fame and
acceptance, entered into the circle of her contemporary radical artists. Her
images are clear and saturated and set in a fluid atmosphere between reality
and doxa. Greenberg was inspired by an essay by Bill Moyer’s
“There is No Tomorrow”: "For the first time in
our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology
asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a
worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality.
When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they
are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike,
oblivious to the facts
With
such an attitude toward American policy, Greenberg positions her crying
children in the world of pain signs that can move to the farthest human
geography and also calling up references to the children who have always been
as the hopeful-life metaphors.
Such themes are discussed in this
collection of images and the artist has also approved the influence of Moyer’s
articles. These are the first ideas which come to mind. However the question is
this: what has prevented this collection from being a commonplace political
announcement? What has changed it to an impressive work of art?
Jill
Greenberg images have always been associated with the term “manipulated” which
is a keyword in this discussion. What makes the distinction between the
manipulated images and other types of images is the element of truth and the
amount of faithfulness in copying the image subject. Whenever the artist
changes, moves and pastes to the initial image, we willy-nilly enter a new
domain we can call the domain of manipulated images. Now we look at the images
of “End Times” more carefully. Greenberg’s children are obviously suffering
pain and injury, however with a little contemplation in the images we can see
that the source for this pain is external and has little direct relation to the
faces of the children. The artist with the help of her tools, she amends the
structure of the works: elements like color density, light, and shade...has
come to a new result which is far in distant with her first material. For
instance, in image (1), by adjusting the distant elements and omitting color,
I, the author of this essay, tried to reveal the structure of the initial
image. It is obvious that in this new image the child’s countenance is more
representing curiosity than suffering
The new function of faces in
Greenberg’s collection are representation of multi-functional image language
which, like a literary language is capable of creating various systems with limited
elements. Further, when a face as a pictorial sign is used in a work of art, a
huge group of presupposed and accepted systems, work simultaneously working and
new languages like gesture permeate subject. As a result comparing the
pictorial elements in abstract levels, this time we face more complications,
since this new language game is the product of the conjunction of different
layers of meaning. In Über Ästhetik, Wittgenstein says:" If I
draw a meaningless curve and then draw another curve which is almost similar to
the former, you will not notice the difference, but if I draw an image I call
face and then draw another face with a little difference, you will rapidly
notice that there is a distinction". Such conventions which refer us to
predictable ideas, do not include training rules but are the results of a
general and autonomous system which are formed self-growingly in the history of
mankind. Art images have thus employed many of their functions. The collection
of images which comprise our mental imagery bank, in an automatic process,
cause us to search for an equivalent when encountering an object. Wittgenstein
continues:” I draw some lines with a pencil and ask: who is he?
And I get an answer like: He is Napoleon. We are never taught to call this sign
Napoleon.”
Cleverly, Jill Greenberg
unconsciously benefit from this system and uses its methods to inspire the
meanings. Gesture signs which express feelings like indifference, shouting,
naughtiness, … in combination with elements making a crying face, make a
language game in which a face empty from genuineness is born. The changes in
relationships among structural elements put forth new ideas which are totally
different from the original ones. By locating in ideological systems which
Moyer has written his articles with their fear, Greenberg’s children welcome
ornaments on their face which do not own. And it is simply this contrast which
empties them from
genuineness. This emptiness of
genuineness appears as a nonperceptible visual shock and assists the artist in
compiling her announcement of protest, and creates an expressive work of art
which because of using visual and analogical signs, as an announcement, is
several steps above the usual political announcements
Jill
Greenberg was born in Montreal, Canada in July 1967. She grew up outside of
Detroit, Michigan, and graduated with honors with a BFA in photography from
RISD. At the present time she lives in L.A
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