Performance Photography by Ian Winters

September 5th through September 30th, 2005

CounterPULSE 1310 Mission St. (near 9th), SF, CA 94103.  

Contact the artist: Ian Winters

List of Prints

This September the newCounterPULSE gallery inaugural exhibition features Performance Photography by Ian Winters. The gallery is open during normal business hours, during performances and classes.

If you like what you see (but can't afford an exhibition print)-- consider buying an 8x10 print on a sliding scale. 50% of the proceeds of 8x10 print sales will go to fund the new CounterPULSE gallery program.

About the work:

Keith flag#1, from Chosen

mary #3.

filmstrip #3, shipyard

The  thread that connects  the work in this show is performance and performers – most with long ties to the Bay area performance community and 848 Community Space, the former name and location for CounterPULSE. Individual images in the show range between improvisational collaborations with the performer, heavily edited in the darkroom to more traditional dance documentation. Whether collaborations or documentation for me these images  share an interest in  the intersections between live art, the still image, and the inconsistent fragments of story that thread through the world.

Unique to this particular body of work is its inextricably shared creative source. Depending on the series, the single still image you see on the wall represents the creative work of at least two and sometimes dozens of people.  Other series, such as the collaborations with Jorgensen and Armentrout, are joint improvisations where the photograph is a primary goal. 

Images from the documentation focused work involve many people- including the performing artists in their conception and realization of each performance, the aesthetic work of each artist's production team of directors, musicians and costume, set, lighting & sound designers), and, significantly, the photographer. The images captured by the camera and photographer are absolutely dependent on the work of the performing artists and yet, the images you see are not images your eye could capture as an audience member, nor images fully anticipated by the performers themselves.

#5,6: Recent images with paige sorvillo/ ‘these are my arms holding you, tearing you apart’ Images 5 and 6 involve photos taken for sorvillo’s current work in progress, ‘these are my arms holding you, tearing you apart’ The piece places our immediate U.S. historical/political moment within the landscape of dream. The work shows at CounterPULSE from September 9^th to 11^th, 2005.

#8, Shipyard series 2005: A collaboration in progress with Stine Jorgensen that is based in industrial sites in Europe and the US. It is planned to grow into a a series of site-specific performances and visual  installations that explore the shared fragments of the industrial past/present,  and, a fragmenting cultural identity. Also weaving in and out of the project is our shared atomic shadow, moments burned into the stone and concrete fabric of the global city. Left behind are these ‘traces’, the residue of what is, will be or was or isn’t, or could be that inhabit every bit of lived landscape.

#1,2,7: Pictures of Mary, collaborations with Mary Armentrout: Images 1,2,and 7 feature images from an ongoing collaboration with local dancer Mary Armentrout. These images come from joint improvisation and later darkroom editing work by the photographer.  

About the artist:

Ian Winters was trained in photography, film and performance at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. His recent work focuses on the intersection of visual and live art including still photography, video, site-specific installations, and collaborative performance/ theater projects in the US and Europe.  For more information see www.ianwinters.com.

 from sorvillo/ these are my arms...