Exhibition Review: Liz Deschenes at Fraenkel Gallery
Left / Right (Reversal), 2019
UV laminated chromogenic print mounted on aluminum
© Liz Deschenes, courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Written by Federica Barrios Carbonell
Copy Edited by Parker Renick
Photo Edited by Lucia Luzzani and Yanting Chen
In her stunning exhibition focused on the impact of color, Liz Deschenes presents an array of meditative pieces and offers a subtle exploration of the history and happenings behind the lens of a camera. Her use of bright, striking colors derives from the artist’s use of light and photography mediums individually, depicting a side of photography that is not commonly seen. She creates a sense of abstractionism in her exploratory use of photographic paper and light exposure, and she brings us back to the nostalgic era of the beginning of photography through futuristic colors and finishes. Her unconventional representations of photography hold more meaning than first meets the eye; she draws a connection between the mechanics of the human vision alongside the mechanics of the camera and aspects of what it takes to create a photographic image. How does color affect the human eye’s experience of sight, and how does it create an ambiance that is not truly there?
Left / Right (Reversal) (2019) creates an imagined photograph from the reflections of where it is placed onto the shining silver area of the photographic paper. The sheet is strategically placed on the walls of the space to create a reverse mirror reflection of the room and the movement inside it. Her use of metallic reflection curates real-time representations within the space, combining the art of motion with the sense of personability of photography. The aesthetic of the created images is reminiscent of the early stages of photography, bringing a modern scene and modern people back in time and producing a sense of continuity in time.
Green Screen #1 and #3, 2001
two Fujiflex prints mounted on plexiglass
© Liz Deschenes, courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
On the other side of the color spectrum, Deschenes also uses her visual talents to mimic processes in the commercial and industrial artistic realm. For instance, her Green Screen #1 and Green Screen #3, exhibited in this show, are realistic representations of the tools commonly used in film and television to create graphic worlds and sceneries that either do not exist or are out of the production’s reach, an illusion formed by technology that brings magic to the viewer. Deschenes portrays the behind-the-scenes of the processes we tend to disregard as consumers.
Indicator #1, 2022.
dye sublimation print
© Liz Deschenes, courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Indicator #9 2022
dye sublimation print
© Liz Deschenes, courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Similarly, the artist’s Indicator series employs her famous use of color to demonstrate how colors are used as invisible technologies that help create connections between photography and reality. The pink and blue monochromatic images imitate the colors used as part of color scales as a system for examining the visual qualities of an image.
Liz Deschenes’s conveyance of color is not only visually appealing to the viewer but also reminds us of the importance of fundamentals by blurring lines between the technological processes behind our consumption of images and visualizing such methods in an aesthetically pleasing way. The excitement behind photography and visual technologies is vastly taken for granted. Deschenes’s use of light and color as the two main points of emphasis in her work recalls the early progressions of the medium through modern methods.
Untitled (RHQ / Stored Work), 2008 - 2017
gelatin silver photogram
© Liz Deschenes, courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
The Fraenkel Gallery will be exhibiting Liz Deschenes’s work from June 2nd to August 2nd, 2022, in the space at 49 Geary Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, California.
