Sandra C. Haynes Podcast #9 William Wegman Ensemble of Four Untitled Type-C Prints (1994) Two Untitled Photos of a PCC Student (1994) Artist-in-Residence Fine Art Collection Shatford Library and Boone Sculpture Garden Pasadena City College October 2007 In 1983, Los Angeles Times art critic William Wilson penned a review in which he listed acceptable characteristics of art--it is acceptable, he wrote, if art is "grandiose, profound, elevating, anguished, probing or timeless.... exquisite, erotic, esoteric or pathetic.... experimental, irrational, anarchic and formless." He concluded his list with one thing that art is not allowed to be. "Thou shalt not be funny" (Wilson 91). Wilson was reviewing a retrospective of the artist William Wegman. Ultimately, the review was intended to be a defense of the humorous and the comic in Wegman's art. Nevertheless, Wilson concluded that, "humor is simply prohibitively hard to achieve without sinking into triviality." (Wilson 91) William Wegman was artist-in-residence here at Pasadena City College in the spring of 1994. He was very friendly, devilish and yes, funny. Born in Massachusetts in 1943, Wegman earned a B.F.A. at the Massachusetts College of Art in 1965, and an M.F.A. in 1967 from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana. In 1970, the artist moved to Southern California to teach at California State University, Long Beach. Wegman had been working with black-and-white photography as well as video, a relatively new artistic medium. If you have heard of Wegman, then you know about his alter ego-- his pet Weimaraner, Man Ray--who became the subject of much of the artist's work until Man Ray's death in 1982. Images of the dog, Man Ray, imitating aspects of the human condition have been compared to a reflection on the existential absurdity of modern life, with its constant struggles and inherent anxiety. They are often also very funny pictures and videos. Interestingly, Wegman included not one image of Man Ray in the Artist-in-Residence gallery show at Pasadena City College that coincided with his residency. He expressed the desire to exhibit some new work that had resulted from the influence of nature and specifically, nature around his second home in Maine. (He lives in New York City part of the year.) One of the works he eventually presented to Pasadena City College that hangs on the north side of the library is the result of this interest in collecting flora and arranging the twigs, stems, or flowers on a surface to create a visual narrative. Ensemble of Four Untitled Type-C Prints (1994) is a framed arrangement of four, individually mounted C-prints that are made up of multiple exposures, lined up like three vertical strips of negatives--almost like a proof sheet. Beginning at the upper right, you see a sequence of images in a grid, that capture the outstretched, bent arm and open-fisted hand of a student. Each shadow image is slightly different, sometimes looking like a disembodied creature with a large eye. Below the shadow arm image is a work dominated by red, white and blue with the same black lines from the filmstrip left to create a grid pattern. Here, Wegman has arranged twigs and flowers that he collected around the grounds of the college. Beginning with a circle of leaves at the lower right, then a neat pile. The central blue vertical sequence is made up of flowers, carefully arranged so that we can count them. This charming compositional device may have been influenced by Wegman's video work for the PBS children's show Sesame Street during the 1980s. The final vertical sequence at the left has a flat, background shadow of the lower body of a man and the careful placement of more flora. Look again; it's a humorous touch of Wegman's irreverence. The print at the lower left is dominated by black strips that were produced by masking the negatives. At the center, one print was developed with a reddish cast that shows shadows of hands reaching toward each other. Finally, at the upper left, you see the three vertical rows of four exposures each, dominated by crowds of students looking up. Wegman actually took most of these shots from a ladder on the front lawn of the college. He has captured the enthusiasm of our students. These pictures, crowded with bodies, are grounded by the central image of one of the core buildings on our campus--the building where photography classes are conducted. Wegman said that that building, representing education, was our grounding. (Hoover, 2007) This final image also reflects on how Wegman came to a realization of how he was going to work during his week as artist-in-residence. He initially thought that he would continue the same work that was being shown in the gallery--stark but elegant prints of fauna, collected in the country in Maine. But, confronted with large crowds of students, faculty and members of the extended city college community, Wegman made a decision regarding how he would work and what he would try to create. At the end of Artist-in-Residence week, he admitted to a group of students, faculty and administrators: "At one point I just looked up and I saw five times as many people as this, staring at me and that is not a very comfortable way to work. So, to overcome my anxiety, I turned the camera on you. And the other thing that we did--we did lots of shopping. Instead of going to Beverly Hills, we went to the lovely thrift stores that you have around here. And some of you dressed up for me and that made me feel very, very protected and I like to work in a protected environment. You all provided me with my palette and my protection.... This is about the sunniest group of people I've ever been around and it brought it out in me too. And I just hope that in the next couple of months I'll be able to select a group of pictures which will do my experience here justice and also will be a work of art, -- a memento of my collaboration with you all here. Thanks so much for sharing that with me." (WegmanVideotape, 1994) Well, you heard from Bill that he went shopping with students. The second work that he donated to the college hangs on the south side of the library. It is called Two Untitled Photos of a PCC Student (1994). This work is the result of a shopping trip. The subject of the two, seemingly identical, matted Type-C prints is a photography student who volunteered to pose for Wegman in a studio setting. These photographs address post-modern themes dealing with identity. The identity of this subject is unclear and confusing. If you look carefully, you will see that the two images are different. In one, the young woman, dressed in a striped pink and white dress, platinum blond, shoulder-length wig and brown sandals is facing the viewer. In the other photograph, the dress, wig and shoes have been put on backwards, and the woman is facing the wall. Orientation is difficult to discern, since the wig covers the face in the first picture and then the back of the head in the second. This work is classic Wegman. It harkens back to a 1977 black and white photographic self-portrait called Reduce/Increase in which the artist poses in a wig and dress to comment humorously on the personal, physical imperfections we all deal with. Two Untitled Photos of a PCC Student is a further commentary on the photographic medium. Photography is not necessarily reality or truth; it can be an illusion or a downright lie. A final reaction to these two pictures that look so alike but represent opposites-- Wegman has commented that when he dressed up Fay Ray (the dog he adopted in 1985) and photographed her in dresses, there was a major problem. The dog did not have arms and hands to put through the sleeves of a dress. Thus, the oddly funny illusion of anthropomorphism was not completely convincing. (Wegman, Fay 57) So, Wegman began to use assistants who hid behind the dog and extended their arms out in different positions. The fact that Wegman posed our PCC student with the lower arms hidden behind the body is strikingly like many pictures of his beloved dog. References: Hoover, Linda S. Personal interview. 4 Oct. 2007. Kunz, Martin, ed. William Wegman: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs, Videotapes, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Lucerne. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990. Wegman, William. Home page. 30 Sept. 2007 < http://www.williamwegman.com/index.html/ >. ---, Fay. New York: Hyperion, 1999. ---, Video Taped Session: Presentation, 1 April 1994. Videocassette 035. Artist-in- Residence Archives, Shatford Library, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California. ---, William Wegman Polaroids. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002. Wilson, William. "The Artist and the Laugh Track," Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 1983, Calendar: 92-93. Haynes(c)2007 4 4