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Die hier ausgestellten Bilder der in Los Angeles geborenen Foto- Künstlerin Melissa Ulto könnten unter die Überschrift "Woman in red" gestellt werden - so dominierend ist diese Farbe in ihrem photographischen Schaffen, daß sich nicht die Frage stellt ob, sondern wie sie diese verwendet und eingesetzt hat. Die Photographin zieht dabei alle Register und nutzt alle künstlerischen Möglichkeiten, um sich nicht in Wiederholungen zu ergehen, sondern ein Modell und ihre Lieblingsfarbe auf immer neue Arten zu verbinden. Mal sind es Blüten, mal Stoff-Fetzen oder Kleidungsstücke und dann wieder wird der gesamte Raum mit rotem Licht ausgeleuchtet. Durch die daraus resultierende atmosphärische Stimmung und farbliche Wucht entsteht eine Art cinematographische Photographie, die an großes breitwandig-farbenprächtiges Kino erinnert und die Modelle in Melissa Ultos Aufnahmen zu Stars in einem ganz besonderen Leinwandepos macht.
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Melissa
Ulto
…unMade
Movie… @ http://www.thecataract.com <<
an
online digital photography and video exhibit is an exploration of
subculture sexuality, as depicted by b-movies and pulp fiction, mixed
with cyber culture >> bio: Melissa
Ulto is an interdisciplinary artist who utilizes modern and traditional
mediums to create her works. Born in Los Angeles, she grew up in various
cities and towns in Northern Ontario, with summer vacations spent with
extended family in New York. Artistically inclined from a very early
age, her skill grew under several private teachers and her own obsessive
creative investigations. Attending college briefly, Melissa moved to New
York in 1991. She began integrating her computer skills with her
creative skills and launched her first online exhibit in 1994. Continuing
her education, she found her multimedia and fine art professors
interested in her work while at the same time unable to recommend a
method of showing her pieces, which often involved computers, video,
paintings, photography and assemblage. Melissa found the web to be ideal
in creating a time/space that engages the audience in both moving and
still imagery presentations. She
currently resides in New York, working professionally as a Digital Video
Specialist at Columbia University, and continues to pursue her work with
her online exhibit, ...unMade Movie... She recently showed her work at
AugustArt 2001, in New York, as part of a group show of upcoming artists.
Her work has gained international attention, and will be featured in
several online galleries. From
the Artist: My
work makes people uncomfortable in all kinds of ways - it arouses
sexually and intellectually, confuses with the many faces, confounds
with the obscured images, teases and confronts with image and text. The
site is a backdoor access into intellectual and erotic discussion. That
really frightens many people...makes them lose their
bearings...questions the idea that sex is separate from intellect...that
women can own their own iconography and objectification and in doing so
expose deeper and more erotic truths...and there is the underlying
darkness to my work, which represents the lack of clarity in
subconscious imagery - the mind dreams in darkness and the far corners
are the places where images are half-lit, murky in the undertow of
emotions and random thoughts...visual non-sequitors that are half-seen -
to terrify, exalt, and inspire. Images follow from darkness to daylight,
possessing a dreamlike quality, the fog of sleep lifting as if the
half-glimpsed visions of dreaming have followed us from night into day. When the image is spoon fed, the idea is dictated to the audience, the inspiration and motivation for true interaction with the piece is destroyed. Humans desire puzzles - visual, verbal, word and thought puzzles. My work offers a trip down the rabbit hole with no explanation, no linear narrative, no guideposts, maps or standard methodologies. I think art is escapism at its best - good art requires a leap in faith and trip to the subconscious that will connect imagination and emotion. The puzzle is not meant to be solved but to be experienced singularly by each person viewing the work. creative
philosophy: the
internet has introduced the idea of virtual space and time to millions
of users - i want to be in the center of that virtuality, creating
within that space and bringing it into physical reality, blurring the
lines of subconscious, shared and changeable states of being artist’s
statemtent: Melissa
Ulto creates with the human form, using self-portraiture in digital
still and moving images, exploring sexuality, subculture iconography and
technology. Her work draws
from vintage and cyber culture influences, embracing the gritty and
sometimes pixelated nature of her media. Multimedia is a key aspect to Melissa's interdisciplinary
artistic philosophy, allowing a full examination of an idea in stills,
movies, sounds, animation and traditional fine art. In ...unMade Movie..., Melissa is examining the roles of subcultural female sexuality - how little it has changed from the b-movies and pulp fiction of the mid-twentieth century and how it is echoed in her ideas of sexuality. In this piece, Melissa presents each role as a separate persona, mixing identity with iconography. She is also examining the subtext of the moving image - what happens when you slow it down, examine the frames that pass into our cultural subconscious. The streamed media and flash animation reflect the ambient quality of the still images. |
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