Pseudo Documentation, is a series of large-scale photographs depicting grandiose installations in fantasy exhibition spaces. DiMichele creates this work by first building scale models of exhibition spaces, and producing original artworks in drawing, painting and sculpture mediums, which are sited in the spaces and then photographed to create the final works. The Pseudo Documentation photographs are inspired by DiMichele’s background with photography, installation art, abstract forms and passion for monumental museum and gallery architecture combined to create this photographic series of work.
Pseudodocumentation : Salt & Asphalt
Lightjet print
40 x 80 inches
2007
Pseudodocumentation: Branches
Lightjet print
42 x 60 inches
2006
Pseudodocumentation: Broken Glass
Lightjet print
40 x 60 inches
2006
Pseudodocumentation: Desert Disks
Lightjet print
42 x 68 inches
2007
Pseudodocumentation: Hose Drawing
Lightjet print
42 x 55 inches
2007
Pseudodocumentation: Bark Painting
Chromogenic digital print
Edition of 6
42 x 55 inches
Earlier in his career, DiMichele was known for his abstract painting and installation work, which often questioned conventions and traditions of non-objective art. For the Pseudo Documentation series, DiMichele unveils a new body of work that continues these investigations through imagination and manipulation seen in these large-scale photographs. DiMichele’s process is to create three-dimensional models of exhibition spaces and create within that space various art work that are contingent on the illusion of the architecture and space of the model he creates.
The resulting installation model of the exhibition space is photographed and the result creates a complete environment in the scale model gallery. DiMIchele’s idea for this series evolved out of documenting installation projects that he had created, as well as thinking about the nature of art documentary photography in itself. The fact that DiMichele creates artwork that is of a highly representational nature, by utilizing figuration, perspective, lighting etc. is mainly to create works that deal with issues in abstract art.
The models in Pseudo Documentation, playfully allude to the extreme size of contemporary art exhibition spaces such as the Tate Modern, his photographs infer a grandiose scale that matches or exceeds such spaces. Although the photographs are clearly representational in every way, the imagery and subject matter reflect the artist’s interest in the forms and history of modernist abstraction. [K.G.]
Azurebumble 