Adam Fuss: Nature Through Alchemy, The Origins of Photography Reinvented – by Charles Giuliano

During the medieval period, an era dominated by faith and mysticism, inquirers gazed at the stars, not through the objective lens of astronomy, but to predict the movements and implications of the zodiac formulated by the laws of astrology.

Adam Fuss: Nature Through Alchemy, The Origins of Photography Reinvented

by Charles Giuliano

 

During the medieval period, an era dominated by faith and mysticism, inquirers gazed at the stars, not through the objective lens of astronomy, but to predict the movements and implications of the zodiac formulated by the laws of astrology. The ersatz physician, tending to the ill, treated the humors. In the laboratory alchemists boiled and toiled to turn base metals into gold. However unfounded the approach, or horrific the applications from leeches and cupping to inducing vomiting and bowel movements, these experimenters and practitioners of the dark arts stumbled onto truths and laws of nature that, when refined and disciplined, would evolve into the science of the Enlightenment.

The moldy bread that seemed to cure a malady has by now been revealed as penicillin. There is no need to save rotten table scraps to treat potential illness. And yet, despite, and perhaps because of the demystification of scientific method, there is an element in our society, indeed a subliminal longing for, the mystical, astrological and alchemical.

These thoughts were provoked by viewing a large survey exhibition of the serene and sublime work of the artist photographer, Adam Fuss, some sixty images from 1987 through the present, on view, through January 12, at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. It will then travel to the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany the organizer of the exhibition.

The work comprising several galleries (spilling out of the usual Foster Galleries for contemporary art into space normally reserved for the permanent collection) presents a series of large format, pristine photograms and the recent daguerreotypes. The scale, color and surface of these stunning images seems more at home in a dialogue about aspects of painting and printmaking than of photography. That would appear to be the conventional wisdom. But, a deeper reflection on the work, reveals that the artist has actually gone back to the very origins of the medium. Fuss has explored its very oldest techniques and processes such as the complex, unique, positive/ negative, daguerreotype, patented in the 1830s, and the primitive photograms, or lensless manner of placing objects onto sensitized surfaces that are then developed as fixed images.

Exploring the exhibition, viewing the work, reading wall labels, and the rather skimpy texts in the official MFA press kit, unfortunately, provoked more questions than answers. Even copies of yet to be published essays in the delayed catalogue might have helped. Or, at least a decent biography of the artist, artist statement, or annotated fact sheet of the images might have made this critical task a bit less daunting. But, nevertheless, let’s make a go of what we’ve got.

For openers there are the truly majestic works. It is tempting to say damn the torpedoes and just charge into some Wittgenstinian, formalist analysis. Who needs the artist when we have the work. And, these images do not appear to evoke content, politics and sociology in the usual sense. Thank God. The work is about beauty, always a seductive but dangerous topic. One might launch into an exegesis on the Apollonian in art. Just to get the juices flowing. But I will spare you that academic exercise.

We learn that the artist was born in London in 1961 and has resided in New York since 1982. The press release states that, "I’ve been making photograms for fifteen years," said the artist recently. "It’s a totally intimate form, and at this point it’s my language." Fair enough. "Adam Fuss is an extraordinary artist and we are thrilled to be the premiere venue for his exhibition," said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA. "Fuss’s images are timeless and beautiful, this exhibition is a milestone and we are honored that it is taking place in Boston, the only American venue." Thanks Malcolm. "Timeless," "Beautiful," and Milestone," indeed, what insights.

So let’s at least spend some time with the work. In, Untitled, 1987, a Cibachrome photogram, 24 x 20 in., the artist dripped water creating small circles and pools onto paper that was then processed. It looks like a large photograph of a surface of water but no lens was involved and because there is no subsequent enlargement of a negative, no loss of pristine detail. This then is the critical premise of the work as we continue through a time line and chronology. There are the exquisite and ghostly dresses of seemingly antique, gossamer material for young women and children. Some aspects of that compare to works by another British artist, Cornelia Parker, and her interest in exploring media and process.

There is a riveting and stunning image of a snake wiggling its way over a clear surface of still water. Here, Fuss seems close to the study of nature drawing an association with science but we glean from the limited information provided that his motive is purely the beauty of the patterns–hence the notion of alchemy rather than science.

So, we are not meant to learn anything from the work but are encouraged at every turn to be seduced by and appreciate the pure wonder and beauty of nature. In this work, as in alchemy, there are accidents that the artist has discovered and exploited. A baby placed on a photo paper, Invocation, 1992, silver dye bleach print, 40 x 30 in. squiggled about, as infants are so inclined, creating pools and force fields. Or, in, Love, from 1992, disemboweled rabbits are placed into color photographic paper, with their guts carefully strewn about. This organic material caused some chemical reaction with the paper that resulted in exquisite color blotches. The artist had no way of knowing this result. But, in, Untitled, 1996, when he laid mushrooms on paper and allowed time for a pattern of spores to drop, he intended a serendipitous result.

Part of the approach then is to set up experimental possibilities and then allow nature to run its course. The resultant work is then beyond the direct control of the artist. The work invites accidents and the unforeseen. It is more about the beauty than the information that is revealed. That approach is also evident in the recent use of the most ancient and demanding technique of the Daguerreotype. The nineteenth century masters of this technique learned to control its limits. Fuss, however, enjoys what they would view as mistakes: The color blue and haloes of stains that result from over processing. And the images are anything but sharp and clear (the hallmark of the medium) forcing us to struggle to decipher the content.

There are other themes such as flowers, birds, smoke and, in the Daguerreotypes, mirrors. Most compelling is the experience of photography that is not politically correct. We had our fill of documentary imagery in Documenta 11. Thank you very much. No, what is truly compelling about the work of Adam Fuss is pure magic.

Charles Giuliano is a Boston based artist, curator and critic. He is an editor of Art New England, contributor to NY Arts Magazine, and the director of exhibitions for The New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University. He is represented by Flatfiles Gallery in Chicago.