Finally we are most aware of the third thing, the artwork itself: the combination of the strips of pictures mounted side by side to be looked at, a format rarely altered, with the intimate scale of a drawing. Secondly, we are aware of those uses: of Bark’s decisions and actions around and within the booth and the way in which they, in turn, are altered and also subverted by its unalterable or unpredictable aspects. First, the work extends our understanding of the nature of the booth as it exists and as it is exploited, personalized, and even perverted by Bark’s various uses of it. The full-length portrait pieces offer a clear example of the elements we continue to be conscious of in all Bark’s photo-booth work. Vertical movement has been combined with and obliterated the vertical sequence of the frames, and the result also reveals their awkward combination. Bark achieves a full-length portrait of sorts, one which distorts both the body and the expected repetition and discreteness of the pictures. The result is an awkward approximation, although his intention is quite evident. By slowly rising, he tried to create a full-length portrait within the cramped space of both the booth and the four-frame strip of pictures.

Along with many artists working today, Bark is involved with performance, with the psychology of a place or an encounter, but only as conveyed by the visual work itself.Įarly in 1969, Bark made a series of pieces which point directly to the discrepancy and awkwardness referred to above. While the use of a photo booth to make art may initially seem tricky or bizarre, the choice becomes increasingly fitting. Everyone is familiar with the photo booth’s interior and the kind of pictures it produces.

The booth provided constants (lighting, placement, color, photo size, format, etc.) which freed him to investigate the variables. Then he worked actively with the photo booth as a tool and as a situation. Simultaneously, Bark began to think of photo-booth pictures he had been taking of himself since May, 1967, as the beginning of an extended self-portrait. It is also apparent in a more personal, eccentric manner in a series of photo-booth pieces Bark has been working on for the last five years which are as yet unexhibited.Īt first, the photo booth was a convenient way to document a hair-removal piece (moustache) included in the “When Attitudes Become Form” exhibition in Bern, Switzerland in 1969. This concern is apparent in Bark’s paintings, where the configuration is initiated by firing an air rifle into a plane of glass, which were exhibited last spring at 112 Greene Street (see Artforum, September, 1973). JARED BARK HAS SOUGHT TO emphasize the discrepancy between intention and result in his work through the deliberate choice of an awkward technique or unwieldy tool.

Social booth serial