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Astman, Barbara
I as artifact Moi en tant qu’artéfact
2014 2014

The I as artifact series presents a series of faces suspended in black voids, each caught in what seems like speech or voice, maybe reflecting moments just before or just after expression. Astman’s influential work is deeply involved in her exploration of the presentation of self in culture and investigation of the potentiality within the medium of photography and its technologies; Astman’s exploration of decay and voice here is led by a sense of graceful humility and humour as she masterfully transmutates disposable anti-aging facial masks into a series of silently howling ghostly faces. In Astman’s hands the material is transformed, now a quotidian portal into chaos or unconscious voice without sense. Closer examination of the varieties of surface in the works reveals a vivid sense of geographical textures and even lunar or planetary topographies.

Astman, Barbara
Rochester NY 1950 Rochester NY 1950
I as artifact Moi en tant qu’artéfact
2014 2014
Digital print on Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art Paper, test print #11 Épreuve numérique sur papier Epson Ultrasmooth Fine Art, test d’impression no 11 (Note: The o of "no" should be in superscript)
40.6 x 40.6 cm (print); 43.2 x 58.4 cm (sheet)
Gift of the Artist, 2020 Don de l’artiste, 2020
63-016.11

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