Overview

Scott McFarland works at the point of transition between analog and digital technologies. Where analog photography is often discussed as a representation of a decisive moment, McFarland’s photographs are constructed from many images, taken at different times and under different conditions. The resulting composite images render familiar places and subjects visually complex through repetition and assemblage. His subtle manipulations of the photograph and use of tableau scale offer the viewer a new perspective on the photograph as a single moment in time. McFarland has expanded the subjects of his works in recent years from the large-scale tableaux gardens in Vancouver, for which he is perhaps best known, to winter scenes, cottage country outside the city and the urban street. The most comprehensive book on Scott McFarland's work to date, Snow, Shacks, Streets, Shrubs offers reproductions of several of McFarland’s recent large-scale, wide-format photographic series as well as a generous representation of his earlier series, including Boathouse (2002–2006), Gardens (2002–2006), Laboratory (2008–2009), Empire (2005–2007), Niagara (2009), Sans Souci (2010–2011), and Repatriation (2011–2014). This lavishly illustrated volume presents the artist’s sustained consideration of the history of photography and the sophisticated technical changes that the medium has undergone. Accompanying the reproductions are essays by Kitty Scott, former curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, independent curator and critic Urs Stahel, and a wide-ranging interview with McFarland by the American photographer James Welling.

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9783863355340

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Kitty Scott is a curator, writer, and senior arts administrator. Formerly Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada, she has also served as the Carol and Morton Rapp Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Director of Visual Arts at the Banff Centre, Chief Curator at Serpentine Galleries, and curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada. She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, including exhibitions of artists such as Peter Doig, Theaster Gates, Brian Jungen, Ken Lum, Scott McFarland, and Jin-me Yoon. She co-curated the Liverpool Biennial (2018), presented Geoffrey Farmer’s project at the Canada Pavilion for the Venice Biennale (2017) and was an agent for dOCUMENTA (13) (2012). Scott has also contributed to numerous books and has taught at numerous institutions including the Curatorial Practice Program at the California College of the Arts. Urs Stahel is a freelance writer, curator, lecturer, and consultant. Among his current roles are curator at Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia (MAST), Bologna, Italy; consultant for the MAST collection of industrial photography; adviser to the Vontobel Art Collection and Foto Colectania, Barcelona, Spain. He was the Co-Founder of Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, where he worked as director and curator between 1993 and 2013. He lives in Zurich. Scott McFarland lives and works in Toronto, Canada. His works are included in public collections such as the MoMA, J. Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery of Canada, SFMoMA, Walker Art Center, and Victoria & Albert Museum. In 2014 the Art Gallery of Ontario exhibited McFarland’s solo exhibition Snow, Shacks, Streets, Shrubs. More recently his series Lens Cleaning was included in David Campany’s touring exhibition A Handful of Dust (2019–21). James Welling is an American photographer known for his color-filtered and digitally manipulated photographs. Throughout his practice, Welling often focuses on locations that were personally or historically meaningful, particularly landscapes and architecture such as Phillip Johnson’s seminal Glass House. He explores both ambiguity and skepticism while maintaining a deeply formal process that connects the legacy of Conceptual Art to the technical practice of photography. Born in 1951 in Hartford, CT, Welling went on to study at the California Institute of the Arts under notable professors such as John Baldessari. Welling’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others. He resides in New York City.

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