Thomas Whitworth
Alternative Facts: Photography by Any Means
Artist Statement, 2021
The Constructed Scenarios series was created to involve viewers in the act of photographic analysis. The work displays scenarios of apparent problems or dilemmas while simultaneously revealing their manufactured falsehoods and, in so doing, the images walks a path between staged setup and photographically real representations.
These still lifes are built using HO scale model train figures, vehicles, structures, and lights/ The backgrounds are 20×30 inch prints of actual skies and landscapes. The objects and backgrounds are then positioned and lighted to help blend the 3D and 2D together visually.Like cinema, this work utilizes sets, actors, props, lighting, and backdrops to form a narrative. Intentionally created to engage viewers in their invented scenes, the tableaus are specific enough to be familiar, but not so realistic as to be convincing illusions.
These images are both story and still life, photographic reality and theatrical performance, small scale illusion and real-world mimic. They present semi-factual information requiring the analysis of their elements and an engaged interpretative skill—an ability sincerely needed for questioning the truth in our current image and information environment.
On display March 1 – April 12, 2021 at the PACE Center Art Gallery:
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