C108
Review
Calgary: Dianne
Bos at Truck
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Dianne Bos:
Galaxy M51 as E=MC2 (whirl pool galaxy),
1999, silver print, 76 x 102 cm; courtesy the
artist
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Call most people a pinhead and you
might just offend them. Call Dianne Bos a pinhead and
you could very well be paying her a compliment. Nearly
a household name in the world of pinhole photography,
Canadian Dianne Bos has made her mark internationally
(as an artist, a writer, and a curator) and is now a permanent
inclusion in the seminal textbook on pinhole - Eric Renner's
Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique.
If you are feeling a tiny twinge of jealousy, you are
not alone.
Bos's most recent exhibition, Galactic
Carousel, at the Truck Gallery (one of Calgary's
leading artist-run spaces) is another culmination of work
by an artist who understands the true intrinsic potential
of her medium. With the skills of a photographer but the
heart of a mad scientist, Bos strives to represent what
in essence is beyond representation. Her interest is in
capturing the passage of time and the inherent, if somewhat
imperceptible, properties of light. Using a pinhole camera,
Bos is able to work with light in its purest form, unmediated
by a lens. Her method stands apart, as it does not rely
on the shortcuts easily offered up by technology, and
yet it exemplifies the perfect merging of scientific theory
and artistic realization.
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Dianne Bos: Galaxy M51 as E=MC2
(whirl pool galaxy), 1999, silver print, 76
x 102 cm;
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Probably best known for her hauntingly
stark photographs of some of the world's most recognizable
locations (Notre Dame Cathedral, Times Square, the Canadian
Rockies), Bos turned her gaze upwards for Galactic
Carousel in a determined attempt to understand the
greater mysteries of the universe. Astronomy, metaphysics,
and their resulting philosophical impact on our limited
existence (in terms of the bigger cosmic picture, of course)
were all explored in this collection of pinhole work.
In Galactic Carousel Bos has
expanded her study of the pinhole to include, along side
her trademark photographs, a selection of installational
and sound pieces. Of particular note were two installations
containing an apparatus Bos refers to as a Galactic
projection device - a name that would make any upstanding
Trekkie proud. These devices were large-scale, multi-holed
pinhole cameras that used star charts as their templates
and frosted Perspex as a stand in for photo-sensitive
paper (also included in the exhibition were photos taken
by the Galactic projection devices in their functioning-camera
form). For one particular projection device, Bos used
a video she filmed of a carousel in France as a light
source. The result for those who then stood in front of
the piece was an enlightening view of an undulating micro
universe made up of hundreds of tiny carousels spinning
madly out of control.
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Dianne Bos: Carousel video
as seen through 'Galactic pinhole projection device';
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Bos continued to explore the metaphor
of the galactic merry-go-round through a series of pinhole
photographs depicting various French carousels. These
carousels, however, were not the benign attractions you
might visit on a summer afternoon. Instead, they were
aptly transformed into eerie, blurring alien-like ships
located in emptied landscapes. Because of the function
of time, only the images of those who lingered long enough
near the carousels were captured by Bos's camera and the
brisk passer-by was simply blipped out of existence. In
terms of philosophical messages, it does point to the
transient nature of our place in the universe and how
time itself can really only be understood in the context
of a far grander scale.
Bos's sound piece further illustrated
this point. Accompanying a large carousel photograph was
a soundtrack that was recorded during the piece's exposure
time. While the photograph itself is almost entirely devoid
of human life, the sound piece tells us an entirely different
story. In the soundtrack you can hear children screaming
in a mock sword battle, but because of the pinhole camera's
slow exposure time, their antics were not recorded - as
if some outside force had spirited them away. Like with
the images of the carousels, the soundtrack points out
the eerie discrepancy between our perceived reality and
the true physical functioning of the universe.
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Dianne Bos: Self portrait as
a globular cluster, 1999, silver print, 76 x
102 cm; all images courtesy the artist;
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How well do we really understand the
world around us? We busy ourselves formulating theories
and physical laws to account for these discrepancies and
to explain the inherently magical aspects of our lives.
And still, we remain fascinated by that which determinedly
eludes explanation.
Janet Naclia is a writer and
Star Trek fan.
Dianne Bos: Galactic Carousel,
Truck Gallery, Calgary, January/February 2004
