Joni Sternbach : Ironing Boards
Upcoming exhibition
-
-
Overview
JONI STERNBACH TAKES TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPHS, A LABOR-INTENSIVE TECHNIQUE, LITTLE HAS CHANGED SINCE IT’S INVENTION IN THE 1850S. SPONTANEOUS AND UNPREDICTABLE, THE STREAKS AND TONAL VARIATIONS IN THE FINISHED PHOTOGRAPHS REFLECT THEIR HAND-MADE CHARACTER, THE CORNERS RUBBED WHERE THEY WERE HELD IN THE CAMERA.
POSING ON ROCKY OUTCROPS, IN FRONT OF UPROOTED TREES, OR ON THICK MATS OF WOODY FLOTSAM, STERNBACH’S SURFERS INHABIT STRANGE LANDSCAPES. THE BEST OF STERNBACH’S PHOTOGRAPHS CONVEY INSISTENT LONGING. THEY ARE ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS – THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SURFER AND BOARD, BETWEEN HUMAN AND LANDSCAPE, BETWEEN PHOTOGRAPHER AND SUBJECT, AND BETWEEN THE SURFERS THEMSELVES. STERNBACH HAS DISCOVERED A NEW HOME – A PLACE WITHOUT WALLS, DEFINED ONLY BY BELONGING AND THE PHYSICALITY OF EXISTENCE.
JONI STERNBACH IS AN AMERICAN ARTIST, PHOTOGRAPHER, AND FILMMAKER. OVER THE COURSE OF A CAREER SPANNING MANY DECADES, HER PORTRAIT-BASED WORK EXPLORES A VARIETY OF THEMES, INCLUDING DOMESTICITY AND THE FAMILY, AND SEXUALITY AND THE BODY. ISSUES OF GENDER, IDENTITY AND FEMINISM WERE THE MOST CRITICAL THEMES IN HER EARLY WORK FROM THE 1980S-1990S, WHERE THE FEMALE FIGURE—INCLUDING HER OWN— WAS A CENTRAL MOTIF.
STUDIO: NEW YORK, USA
"My photographs engage with historic photographic processes to generate a conversation between the past and the present. My current project, Ironing Board is made with the wet plate collodion process. For this, I create a glass negative, and both contact print and enlarge the negative to make a silver print.
My subject matter over time is fluid and I make changes to suit the material to the subject that I am working with. My picture taking practice has led me in part by concept, while also allowing chance to play a pivotal role. I try to maintain a practice that keeps me open to new ideas, even when I am deeply involved in the one I am working on. A curious and elusive concept unto itself.
The Ironing Board is a particularly relevant subject for me because of its form, domestic origin and feminist association. I first used it in my work in the early 1970s, as a more abstract and sculptural piece, and again in the 1980s when with a series of color photographs about myself, my husband and child in our domestic space. I’ve used it to help describe “women’s work” and how we labor in our families and culture.
The wet plate collodion process has limited color sensitivity and can often reveal things hidden beneath the surface. The ironing board has a similar composition, in that each one has some of its history inscribed within it that speaks about women, girls and the culture of the 20th century.
For this project I have been collecting full size vintage wooden boards, and child sized ones. With the mother daughter relationship acted out in these inanimate objects, the division of labor between the sexes is amplified in a tender and emotional way."
Joni Stern, Ironing Boards
-
Works
-
Installation shotsNo images available.
