Alyssa Talento
My work deals with subjects that are topical or related to experiences most people have participated in. There are two aspects to my major project, one focuses on still life, the other explores the mannerisms people display while eating. I believe this allows the work to be more relatable and encourages people to form their own opinions as they bring their perspective to the work. The aesthetic quality of the photograph is important to me, in particular, I like to ensure that my use of colour is vibrant and realistic. My most recent series’ Eating Habits and Segregate, have adopted different approaches to the subject of food and eating. These projects have encouraged me to experiment and explore different photographic methods and perspectives.
Segregate
Still Life has been a popular subject for painters for centuries and more recently for photographers who often reference these earlier paintings in their own work. My starting point is the traditional still life genre. As the series develops and also because of the coronavirus lockdown and forced isolation the subject matter slowly changes to reflect the food essentials we all need for basic living. The inclusion of a daily diary contrasts life the relative safety of my family home and the invisible threat of the virus outside.
My dissertation examines the effects of exhibiting vernacular photographs in art museums, asking what happens to the status of these photographs when they are placed in a museum and experience the so-called “museum effect" (Alpers,1991). Long ignored by scholars due to their banal qualities, theoretical and historical interrogations of vernacular photographs are relatively recent. Newfound interest in such photographs, along with the influence of archive cultures, have driven artists to collect them and art museums to exhibit them. The resulting loss of the photographs’ original meanings, due to curatorial decisions, has encouraged writers to critique the art museum for their presentation and decontextualisation of vernacular photographs. Leading on from this, I focus on three specific projects where artists and collectors exhibit family photographs in art museums namely: Thomas Sauvin’s Beijing Silvermine (2009-present), Fiona Tan’s Vox Populi Tokyo (2007) and Phil Collin’s free fotolab (2009).
Photobook
This book contains the daily entires of my experience during self quarantine. It conveys the shift in the treatment of the objects from the beginning to the middle of the book. It also emphasises the difference between the foods used at the two stages.