Christian Boltanski

Vitrine de référence (Vitrine of Reference), 1971


Accident Chronicle, 1973


Purim Reseve, 1989

Another artist that caught my eye was Christian Boltanski. A French photographer, sculptor, painter, and installation artist. He usually paints events of historic significance. Themes of death, memory and loss; he often seeks to memorialize the anonymous and those who have disappeared. The ties in with my project in the sense he displays people who the viewer does not know about and seeks to investigate/find out about. Public looking into the private lives of those who are no longer present in society. His work is emotive and dramatic. Often using dark colours, lighting and imagery with materials and objects to associate with the images he displays.

'We are all so complicated, and then we die. We are a subject one day, with our vanities, our loves, our worries, and then one day, abruptly, we become nothing but an object, an absolutely disgusting pile of shit. We pass very quickly from one stage to the next. It's very bizarre. It will happen to all of us, and fairly soon too. We become an object you can handle like a stone, but a stone that was someone' Christian Boltanski

Sources:

http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-boltanski_en/ENS-boltanski_en.htm

http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue2/boltanski.htm