Time, Existence, Ephemerality (2017)
61 photographs printed as three giclée prints on 260gsm Epson Lustre, adhered to three separate cardboard panels, each 594 x 841 mm (1782 x 841 mm in total span)
Time, Existence, Ephemerality (2017) is Benji’s photographic series created during his final year at Scots College, whilst enrolled in Matt Jarry’s Art Academy course (NCEA Level 3 Photography). The series was subsequently submitted for NZQA Photography Scholarship, for which the artist received Top Scholar in the country. The following review was written by the New Zealand Photography Scholarship Marking Panel, published in June 2018.
“This Photography Outstanding Scholarship submission presents a thoughtful and rigorous enquiry underpinned by ‘two pivotal events’ that the candidate identifies as the starting point for what is a rich and lateral photographic journey – that being their introduction to the philosophy of existentialism and the concurrent passing of their Grandma. Together, these form the central contexts for the practice and position the project focus: the notion of time and how it determines (our) existence.
The overarching proposition operates on a dual platform; philosophical and personal linked to subject matter, concept and context. It all stems from a comprehensive essay that the candidate himself wrote about existentialism, along with the experience of witnessing his Grandma’s passing, further positioning the ephemeral as the means to explore time, life and death.
The visual research (through practice) is outstanding and strongly locates a sense of ownership and enquiry from the outset. Using themselves as the figure in the work in various states of ‘being’ is an important symbolic framing (postured, sleeping, transforming, holding, lifting, walking). The figure plays a performative role in unpacking the candidate’s thoughts into a series of profound sequences and mesmerising imagery.
Sequencing occurs as passages of time and is methodically employed throughout to advance the conceptual; short filmic-like narratives depict the durational aspect of time passing. The staging of these studies is calculated and highlights the critically thoughtful way that this candidate goes about making artwork. For example, the 5-figure self-portrait ("symbolic of our own ephemerality”) and the 5 daffodils ("physical transformation over time”) successfully operate as a dual narrative time sequence, and potentially could be one work.
Subject matter is treated materially through the durational aspects of the making – the artworks often utilise lengthy photographic chemical processes or are recorded over time, e.g. photographs taken every six hours within a 24-hr cycle. This is clever conceptualisation using process as a present component in the work. A variety of cameras and photographic processes have been applied to specifically address the core concepts of ephemera and time. These include working between different formats: black and white 35mm and 120mm film photography, sandwiched negatives, multiple exposures, pinhole long exposures, sequencing, chemical staining (darkroom experimentation). The aesthetics these processes bring, reflect the emotive tone of the photographs; being there and not being there (existing and not existing) like in the folio panel 3 sequence where the boulder remains permanent in the frame and the figure transient.
Technical aspects in support of the conceptual are also reinforced by compositional devices and strategies that are essentially performative in nature, such as the stretched to bent figure, where flowers transform from a live state to dead, where the clock and television reflect light onto each other’s surface until the TV becomes black and the clock illuminated, in the vertical strip sequence where the actual clock hands are removed and the human hands slowly become the clock hands, and within the single image as the iterative figure enters the ocean and literally merges into the ocean (and in the candidate’s words, where he accepts his own and others existence).
The continual layered and lateral play is indicative of a complex and focused photographic project that relentlessly seeks out answers to questions that engage in ‘big' concepts and sophisticated territory at this level."
This review has been written by the New Zealand Scholarship Photography 2017 Marking Panel, Published in June 2018
Signed, photographic reproductions from this series may be available for acquisition on request to the artist. As of now, only one reproduction has been made; Self Portrait, from ‘Time, Existence, Ephemerality’ (2017) which was sold at the 4th Annual South Wellington Art Show, manifested as a Giclée Print on 310gsm Ilford Photo Rag, 210 x 297mm
Time, Existence, Ephemerality (2017)
61 photographs printed as three giclée prints on 260gsm Epson Lustre, adhered to three separate cardboard panels, each 594 x 841 mm (1782 x 841 mm in total span)
Time, Existence, Ephemerality (2017) is Benji’s photographic series created during his final year at Scots College, whilst enrolled in Matt Jarry’s Art Academy course (NCEA Level 3 Photography). The series was subsequently submitted for NZQA Photography Scholarship, for which the artist received Top Scholar in the country. The following review was written by the New Zealand Photography Scholarship Marking Panel, published in June 2018.
“This Photography Outstanding Scholarship submission presents a thoughtful and rigorous enquiry underpinned by ‘two pivotal events’ that the candidate identifies as the starting point for what is a rich and lateral photographic journey – that being their introduction to the philosophy of existentialism and the concurrent passing of their Grandma. Together, these form the central contexts for the practice and position the project focus: the notion of time and how it determines (our) existence.
The overarching proposition operates on a dual platform; philosophical and personal linked to subject matter, concept and context. It all stems from a comprehensive essay that the candidate himself wrote about existentialism, along with the experience of witnessing his Grandma’s passing, further positioning the ephemeral as the means to explore time, life and death.
The visual research (through practice) is outstanding and strongly locates a sense of ownership and enquiry from the outset. Using themselves as the figure in the work in various states of ‘being’ is an important symbolic framing (postured, sleeping, transforming, holding, lifting, walking). The figure plays a performative role in unpacking the candidate’s thoughts into a series of profound sequences and mesmerising imagery.
Sequencing occurs as passages of time and is methodically employed throughout to advance the conceptual; short filmic-like narratives depict the durational aspect of time passing. The staging of these studies is calculated and highlights the critically thoughtful way that this candidate goes about making artwork. For example, the 5-figure self-portrait ("symbolic of our own ephemerality”) and the 5 daffodils ("physical transformation over time”) successfully operate as a dual narrative time sequence, and potentially could be one work.
Subject matter is treated materially through the durational aspects of the making – the artworks often utilise lengthy photographic chemical processes or are recorded over time, e.g. photographs taken every six hours within a 24-hr cycle. This is clever conceptualisation using process as a present component in the work. A variety of cameras and photographic processes have been applied to specifically address the core concepts of ephemera and time. These include working between different formats: black and white 35mm and 120mm film photography, sandwiched negatives, multiple exposures, pinhole long exposures, sequencing, chemical staining (darkroom experimentation). The aesthetics these processes bring, reflect the emotive tone of the photographs; being there and not being there (existing and not existing) like in the folio panel 3 sequence where the boulder remains permanent in the frame and the figure transient.
Technical aspects in support of the conceptual are also reinforced by compositional devices and strategies that are essentially performative in nature, such as the stretched to bent figure, where flowers transform from a live state to dead, where the clock and television reflect light onto each other’s surface until the TV becomes black and the clock illuminated, in the vertical strip sequence where the actual clock hands are removed and the human hands slowly become the clock hands, and within the single image as the iterative figure enters the ocean and literally merges into the ocean (and in the candidate’s words, where he accepts his own and others existence).
The continual layered and lateral play is indicative of a complex and focused photographic project that relentlessly seeks out answers to questions that engage in ‘big' concepts and sophisticated territory at this level."
This review has been written by the New Zealand Scholarship Photography 2017 Marking Panel, Published in June 2018
Signed, photographic reproductions from this series may be available for acquisition on request to the artist. As of now, only one reproduction has been made; Self Portrait, from ‘Time, Existence, Ephemerality’ (2017) which was sold at the 4th Annual South Wellington Art Show, manifested as a Giclée Print on 310gsm Ilford Photo Rag, 210 x 297mm
