A as Stone
2010
11 framed photographs
27 x 22 centimeters
Adrien MISSIKA uses photography without adopting any particular style, format, or predefined technique, ideally embracing them all in pursuit of an impossible synthesis of what photography represents today. Another aspect of his work concerns the physical support given to the image and its presentation in space. In "A as Stone", he offers a selection of shots from his archive that regards the topics of travel, architecture, and landscape.
A Dying Generation
2011
black and white laser print
49 x 39 centimeters
"A Dying Generation" revisits the iconic first generation Los Angeles palm trees photographed by Ed RUSCHA in his seminal artist's book "A Few Palm Trees" (1971). MISSIKA shoots them in the same deadpan, repetitious fashion, but in the 40 years that have elapsed between the two bodies of work, the palms have grown huge, and will soon dry out beneath the burning California sun. Through them MISSIKA presents us a typology of urban biosphere as fragile and temporary as Bernd and Hilla BECHERS industrial ruins. Looking at MISSIKA's series, we get to thinking not only about how representations may outlive the things they represent, but also how, over time, all images rot down into the general mulch of our visual culture.
Einfühlung
2004
pigment ultra chrome inkjet prints on cotton paper
60 x 80 centimeters
Unique
The German term "Einfühlung", which gives its name to this photographic series, could be translated as « compassion » or « empathy ». But the artist defines it as the feeling that « makes one » with the world. This series presents some large social-oriented housing complexes built throughout Europe. The shots have been taken with a first generation Nokia cell phone. In a large format, the rough pixels evoke the pictorial manner which, at the beginning of the history of photography, was seeking to simulate painting. Wide angle views reveal the graphic quality of these architectures, it the same time as their wreckage. Adrien MISSIKA includes the vegetal surroundings which frame the buildings. Bucolic, savage or abandoned, these landscapes are oddly reminiscent of the landscape gardens, dear to the author and present in his series "Fabriques". Like abandoned sceneries (no characters are animating them), these prints evoke the ruins of a dreamed future. The artist seems to wander in a promenade documented by his cell phone. As with the late 18th century « Grand Tour » travelers, Adrien MISSIKA proposes a personal itinerary in the history of architecture and collectivist utopias. The romantic grain, the smooth blur and the emanating melancholy contrast with the emerging sensation of social bankruptcy. The title of the series, "Einfühlung", evokes an unusual relationship to these detested and decried housing estates: empathy. The artist mixes cleverly the genres, oscillating between a very contemporary photographic/architectural approach to a more classical pictorial/landscaper approach.
Space Between (Circle)
2007
color photograph mounted on aluminium frame
40 x 50 centimeters
In the series "Space Between" the artist presents photographs of places that exist on the fringes of human experience. While some were taken on his frequent travels, others are mocked up in the studio using polystyrene and paint – like his image of debris floating above the earth's atmosphere in Asteroid ("Space Between") (2007). At once stagey and strangely convincing, these photographs draw heavily on our television- and film-derived expectations of what such remote places might look like, and awake us to the part our own learned visual habits play in the formulation of photographic ‘truth'. (Tom MORTON)
Space Between (Cratère)
2007
c-print mounted on aluminium frame
18 x 24 centimeters
In the series "Space Between" the artist presents photographs of places that exist on the fringes of human experience. While some were taken on his frequent travels, others are mocked up in the studio using polystyrene and paint – like his image of debris floating above the earth's atmosphere in Asteroid ("Space Between") (2007). At once stagey and strangely convincing, these photographs draw heavily on our television- and film-derived expectations of what such remote places might look like, and awake us to the part our own learned visual habits play in the formulation of photographic ‘truth'. (Tom MORTON)
Space Between (Dome)
2007
color photograph mounted on aluminium frame
75 x 100 centimeters
In the series "Space Between" the artist presents photographs of places that exist on the fringes of human experience. While some were taken on his frequent travels, others are mocked up in the studio using polystyrene and paint – like his image of debris floating above the earth's atmosphere in Asteroid ("Space Between") (2007). At once stagey and strangely convincing, these photographs draw heavily on our television- and film-derived expectations of what such remote places might look like, and awake us to the part our own learned visual habits play in the formulation of photographic ‘truth'. (Tom MORTON)
Space Between (Monument, Japon)
2008
color photograph mounted on aluminium frame
75 x 100 centimeters
In the series "Space Between" the artist presents photographs of places that exist on the fringes of human experience. While some were taken on his frequent travels, others are mocked up in the studio using polystyrene and paint – like his image of debris floating above the earth's atmosphere in Asteroid ("Space Between") (2007). At once stagey and strangely convincing, these photographs draw heavily on our television- and film-derived expectations of what such remote places might look like, and awake us to the part our own learned visual habits play in the formulation of photographic ‘truth'. (Tom MORTON)
Standing Waves
2009
color photograph
120 x 150 centimeters
Adrien MISSIKA, while playing with the viewers' expectations and biases, questions in a subtle way our relation to the world and its representation. He addresses both media and popular imageries, while paying a particular attention to the history of photography and the contemporary use of this media. The photographic image and the video are characterized by their link to the real. Usually documentary, they are tied to the very existence of objects, from which they give a direct and immediate print. In "Standing Waves" the visual overlapping pays homage to the physical phenomena of « standing waves » which appear when waves of two different directions collide.
