Sara Cwynar: Soft Film
Aug 6–Oct 24, 2021
Ultimately interested in how design and popular images infiltrate our consciousness, Sara Cwynar explores how familiar, sentimental images are used to smooth over unpleasant realities; to cover up “the systems of control embedded within our social, economic, and political lives.”
Her key works are essay-style films, incorporating performance and text; sculptural constructions that are photographed, printed, tiled, and re-photographed; images taken from darkroom manuals that are deconstructed using a scanner; and stock photographs that are collaged by hand and then re-photographed. Her process is, in a sense, circular: she begins and finishes with a photograph after a journey of intervention and manipulation that disrupts the smooth surface and perspective of the original.
One of the first works that Cwynar produced, “Kitsch Encyclopedia” (2013)—essentially also a work of design—was a book of collected writings of Milan Kundera, Jean Baudrillard, and Roland Barthes, as well as the artist’s own thoughts on the titular subject. Illustrated with re-photographed images including wildlife, religious iconography, and the Grand Canyon, it explores the relationship of kitsch to images. Like Kundera, who declared it an integral part of the human condition, Cwynar sees kitsch as something unavoidable, even necessary— something we need in order “to continue forward in the world.” Cwynar comes by her enthusiasm honestly. Along with her twin sister—Toronto-based curator Kari Cwynar—she spent her childhood as a competitive figure skater, circling the rink in sequined costumes designed by their mother.
Since then, Cwynar’s process has been elliptical in both senses of the word: deliberately obscure as well as circular. Her personal archive, which is always growing, comprises photographs, on which she exerts any number of alterations and interventions, and physical objects that she organizes and photographs in her studio. She spends hours in the dustiest parts of libraries, in basements where obsolete reference books are stacked, and on eBay, where her searches take on an obsessive dimension.
Projected on video, Soft Film combines elements of her composite photography and her publications within the traditions of the experimental essay film and performance video. In the film, the artist collects, arranges, and archives her eBay purchases of dated objects according to a logic based upon color, material, vintage, and use. In contrast to her photographic work, the artist is the central protagonist of her film. We see her working in her studio, both arranging objects and breaking them down.
About the Artist
Sara Cwynar (Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1985) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT; a Bachelor of Design from York University, Toronto, ON, Canada; and studied English Literature at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Cwynar’s peripatetic studies began in English literature at the University of British Columbia, before she finally landed in the graphic design program at York University in Toronto. She has an MFA in photography from the Yale University School of Art. For a good part of her early career, Cwynar continued to work as a commercial designer in tandem with her art practice—she served a three-year stint as a graphic designer at the New York Times Magazine.
Among her key works are essay-style films, incorporating performance and text; sculptural constructions that are photographed, printed, tiled, and re-photographed; images taken from darkroom manuals that are deconstructed using a scanner; and stock photographs that are collaged by hand and then re-photographed. Her process is, in a sense, circular: she begins and finishes with a photograph after a journey of intervention and manipulation that disrupts the smooth surface and perspective of the original.
Selected exhibitions include: “Source,” Remai Modern, Saskatoon, SK, Canada (solo) (2021); “Collection 1970s–Present: Search Engines,” MoMA, New York, NY (2020/21); “Sara Cwynar,” The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (solo)(2019); “Image Model Muse,” Milwaukee Museum of Art, WI, and Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (solo)(2018-2019); 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (both 2018); “Soft Film,” MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (solo); “Subjektiv,” Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (both 2017); and “Greater New York,” MoMA PS1, Queens, NY (2015-2016).
Sponsors
Presenting Sponsor
Exhibition Partners
Education & Public Programs
Dr. Robert L. Brandt, Jr.
Production Partner
