Lot 406 | Staining bench, Furniture Manufactures, Vancouver

WALL, JEFF
1946 Vancouver

Title: Staining bench, Furniture Manufactures, Vancouver.
Date: 2003.
Technique: Diapositive in light box, transformer and cable.
Measurement: 92 x 110 x 14cm.

The luminous object is the copy 8/8. It is fully functioning.

Provenance:
- Galerie Johnen + Schöttle, Cologne

The works of the Canadian photographic artist Jeff Wall often have a historical or art historical reference and represent photographic reinterpretations of various icons of art, literature or world history. He does not work in series or groups of works, but each work is designed individually and with its own statement.
Compared to the oeuvre of many other artists, Wall's oeuvre seems to be relatively small. The artist has created around 200 works so far in his career, which has now lasted over half a century. It is the attention to detail with which this comparatively small number of works can be explained. There is often a large team behind spontaneously taken snapshots. Figures running randomly through the picture are precisely placed extras and every detail in the picture, no matter how small, is constructed. Some works are created in painstaking detail work. Thus, individual details in the picture are captured in independent shots and only later merged into an overall picture without a trace. It is therefore not only the aspects of content that must be taken into account when interpreting Wall's works, but also the formal theoretical aspects in the process of creating the works.
Jeff Wall's trademark are undoubtedly the light boxes with which he presents his photographs. The principle is reminiscent of neon signs in the way they work, a reference that can be classified as secondary, however. More relevant is the dramaturgy created by them in the presentation of the photograph. In technical terms, Wall's light boxes function in a similar way to the lighting process in the cinema: a light source is located behind the film material, which shines through it, thus making the content accessible to the audience in a large format. But this is not the only parallel to the cinema, because many photographs look like still images from a scenic sequence.
The present work also shows cinematographic references. Various buckets stand on a shelf. Traces of paint cover not only the shelf, but also the floor and walls. In this work, Wall stages a scenery reminiscent of a crime scene. However, Wall has a positive connotation of the crime scene here, because despite the dirt and the generally prevailing chaos in the workshop, Wall depicts the site of a creative act. There is an enormous tension within the work. The view of the scene seems like the beginning of a narrative tracking shot and the viewer waits anxiously for the story to continue. However, Wall keeps this from the viewer, which automatically leads him into a direct exchange with the work - always on the lookout for further clues and information to fathom the unspoken riddle.