Lisa Fairstein

lisa_fairstein

Seagull, from the series Loud Frames (2015)

Statement:
I use the process of image-making to create conspicuous spaces for narratives of visual analysis. My works are studies of imaged culture, the language of photography and the practice of making pictures.

In “Loud Frames” and “Pictures of Women”, two interwoven series, I work with the tone and subject matter of the new vernacular of casual image-making. Inspired by online content and the dialogue within image-sharing, these series reflect on the distracted looking of the shared snapshot, as well as the pointed representations and self-representations of women in social media. In their contrasting and corresponding ways, the images merge to amplify the reverberations of the casual cultural author.

In making this work I borrow from the contemporary vernacular’s themes and visual materials. I depict live models acting in performative sets, constructed from sourced photographic elements, both appropriated and of my own creation. Or, I use different combinations of the actual and virtual content. Through engaging this process I confuse physical states and virtual worlds, and I elaborate the instantaneity of the photograph, to consider and complicate the casual “democratic” image, to interpret and re-interpret such forms of mediated looking.

Bio:
Lisa Fairstein is an artist who constructs images that examine visual culture and the language of photography. Group shows of note include: Welcome to the Real, curated by Marco Antonini; White Boys, curated by the artist Hank Willis Thomas; BLOG RE-BLOG, at Signal Gallery; Nature Loves Courage, curated by The Wassaic Project; and Under Ice, at Fresh Window Gallery. She has been awarded residencies through LMCC’s Swing Space program in 2013, as well as The Wassaic Project residency in 2014. Lisa graduated in 2012 with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. She lives and works in New York City.

Artist’s Website: lisafairstein.com