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April 25, 2008
From the series Drifting Away, printed glass, 60x35,2" © Erika DiettesThere is a saying that the rivers of Colombia are the world's biggest graveyard.
Colombian artist Erika Diettes is creating a light-filled memorial to the many thousands of the "disappeared" who are dead or missing as a result of armed conflicts in Colombia. Personal objects or clothing from people who have disappeared are photographed in turbulent water.
The photographs are printed larger than life on 5-feet tall sheets of glass, and displayed upright in heavy gray frames. When installed in long rows of upright images, the photos look like tombstones in a cemetery. Visitors who walk through the installation get the feeling that they too are floating in the river.
See several images from the series here in Lens Culture, and also listen to the artist talk about this work in a 7-1/2 minute audio interview.
Installation view, from the series Drifting Away, printed glass, 60x35,2" © Erika Diettes
I think this work would be amazing to see in person--I have no idea what 5 foot photographs of water printed on glass would even look like, but I can imagine it would be very ethereal and eerie. I wish that someone would show a gallery view of this series. That the installation looks like a graveyard is mentioned a couple times, but unfortunately, without the frames and the sense of scale, the photographs kind of look like ads for laundry detergent (though very beautiful ads).
Hi Kyle,
Thanks for your comment. I wish we had installation photos to show, too. I've just added one photo to the blog entry, to provide a sense of scale. I agree that it would be great to see a lot of these images, life-size, in a large installation.
More to follow, I hope.
Cheers,
Jim
Wow...this is interesting. Thank you for sharing. This is my 1st time to your site and I'm loving it.
Heather
http://oneshotbeyond.blogspot.com/