Arnaud Magg's way of observing the world is very interesting. I saw some of his portaits and journals at the National Art Gallery this past summer when I went there to go see the Van Gogh exhbition, but to be honest, I was much more excited about seeing Magg's work.
Pages from "Werner's Nomenclature of Colours" were displayed along with his works. The pages show records of environments that corresponded with a color swatch. Details of what it was and where he found it were also written down.
In Arnaud Maggs' photography series, the subjects are shot head on, then with their head turned to the side. What I found very interesting was how different a perspective you get of someone's face when you observe it at different angle. The change in facial features from one shot to the next made the same person look like two different people. It also helped that this was the first time I'd ever seen the faces of the subjects...it brings up the idea of how a 2D image cannot fully represent the character of someone's face...it flattens it. In visual art, the idea of single-perspective observation is interesting, especially when doing a self-portrait. Evan Penny's (at the AGO now!) distored sculptures show exactly how single perspective observation while working with a 3D medium can really flatten the face; creating shallow depth.
Arnaud Maggs passed away this week, which is what made me want to write a bit of a comemmoration.
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