DAVID MALJKOVIC RIFFS ON FRANZ KAFKA AND ORSON WELLES

Croatian artist, David Maljkovic says that a lot has changed in Zagreb where he lives and where Orson Welles filmed “The Trial” in the early 1960’s. In his project “Recalling Frames” which has been on view at Metro Pictures for the past month (it ends today – sorry for alerting you so late!) he combines stills from the movie with his photographs of the same locations in present day.
The photomontages are large (framed 42” by 53”) and feel substantial. I particularly like the compositions where angled geometric shapes where the two images combine or shift perspectives animate the stills and suggest motion. The full frame with information (frame numbers, ilford 100 delta pro labels, etc) underscore that the image is made with film and perhaps even slyly plays with the traditions of full frame = full truth.
In the Guardian (see link below) he explains: “I deliberately used an archaic technique to make this shot, so that it felt linked to Welles’s film-making process. I took photographs of the original film frames, and then went to the same location and took another picture from the same angle. Then I put the two negatives together, and produced another photograph. It was a complex process. No labs for processing film exist anymore – the craft is dead – so I did everything myself. I constructed a lab in my studio and developed the pictures by hand. It would have been easy to do it all in Photoshop, but then the end result would have a completely different feeling.”

http://www.metropicturesgallery.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=29&view=exhibitions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/17/david-maljkovic-best-shot/print

Recalling Frames by David Maljkovic, courtesy Metro Pictures

Recalling Frames by David Maljkovic, courtesy Metro Pictures

Recalling Frames by David Maljkovic, courtesy Metro Pictures

Recalling Frames by David Maljkovic, courtesy Metro Pictures

Recalling Frames by David Maljkovic, courtesy Metro Pictures