Apr
17
Jun
15

Mikhael Subotzky: Retinal Shift

Retinal Shift is an exhibition of works by Mikhael Subotzky, Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for the Visual Arts in 2012. The exhibition investigates the practice and mechanics of looking and draws on a diversity of sources: archival portraits, found surveillance footage, and Subotzky's own photographs. Self-Portrait (With assistance of optometrist) (2012) shows high-resolution images of Subotzky's left and right retinas places side by side. Speaking of this work Subotzky says, "I was blinded by the apparatus that made the images. So it is a self-portrait of myself, the photographer, at a moment that I could not see."


Moses and Griffiths, a four-channel projection, shows Grahamstown through the eyes of two tour guides: Moses Lamani and Griffiths Sokuyeka. This production juxtaposes the 'official' tours of iconic institutions with personal tours in which each man speaks about his own experience of the town. Who's Who (2012) consists of 11 slideshows showing images of passport-sized photographs scanned from selected volumes of the serial publication, Who's Who of Southern Africa, beginning in 1911 and moving at 10-year intervals to 2011.

Don't even think of it (2012), is a single-channel film shot from the window of Subotzky's apartment in 2004, reflecting the sleazy pathos of downtown Cape Town. CCTV (2011), is a single-channel film that draws on CCTV footage of central Johannesburg acquired from the police. Each incident ends with the perpetrators being made to look directly into the camera.

I was looking back (2012) is an installation of 100 photographs mined from Subotzky's archive. It includes images from his final year student project, Die vier hoeke (2004) and Beaufort west (2008). Retinal Shift deals not just with looking and seeing, but with being watched; it's the moments when the subject meets the eye of the camera, and looks back consciously, that give this exhibition its particular potency.

For further information about Mikhael Subotzky see http://www.subotzkystudio.com/

To read more please click here.

Exhibition dates
17 April to 15 June 2013

Time
Monday to Friday 8am - 4.30pm and Saturday 9am - 1pm

Place
Standard Bank Gallery

Cnr Frederick and Harrison streets

Johannesburg

 

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