Beschreibung:

Richard Mosse The Crystal World 2011 Chromogenic print. 101.7 x 127 cm (40 x 50 in.) Signed in ink, printed title, date and number 3/5 on a gallery label affixed to the reverse of the flush-mount.
Provenance Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Literature Infra: Photographs by Richard Mosse Aperture, 2012, pp. 46-47 Catalogue Essay Since Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, depictions of the Congo have often paired images of the primitive jungle with accounts of violent deeds, creating a politically charged and dark narrative in the Western imagination. Aware of the current political climate and the history of Western notions of the Congo, Richard Mosse sought to document the current state of the country while battling with the constraints of traditional war photography and his position as a white man with a camera. Using Kodak Aerochrome, a colour infrared film originally developed for military reconnaissance, Mosse photographed an area that had been engaged in violent rebellion since the 1990s. This choice of film rendered the lush jungle greens and military uniforms of the rebels in lavenders, crimsons and hot pink, confronting us with an ethereal, otherworldly landscape and turning our visual expectations on its head. As Mosse explains, 'My photography was a personal struggle with the disparity between my own limited powers of representation and the unspeakable world that confronted me'. This haunting series highlights the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the tension between representation, art, fiction, documentary photography and photojournalism. Mosse represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2014. His work is in many collections including, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Read More