For The 20th Century Encyclopedia of Photography,
2006
Dan Graham's photography was an important foundation for his later sculptural
work for public and private space. He is also a critical theorist who contextualizes
his own work in essay format.
Graham's first, most widely recognized
photographic project consisted of a group of straightforward photographs of houses
in Jersey City, New Jersey, accompanied by an essay. The work was titled
"Homes for America" and was published in the December 1966 - January
1967 edition of Arts Magazine. The photographs showed houses from
various angles, the occupants of the houses, and the activities taking place within
the homes.
The
basic look of these early photographs by Graham is part of an anti-aesthetic movement
among conceptual art photographers of the period. The straightforward, deadpan
snapshot look, compares to the work of Edward Ruscha for example, who documented
west coast pre-fabricated housing in his book, Some Los Angeles Apartments (1966). Graham's alienated shots of the outside of the buildings also
likens to the work of German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher. But for
general purposes, Graham's photographs are technically simple, casual shots that
transmit the ordinariness of subjects they document.
The artist's interest
in tract housing compares to interests of Walker Evans, the first to record lower
income living conditions for the Farm Security Administration. Graham's
intentions however, seem subtly less sincere. Without the text, the photographs
look like documentary work, but with the article implies Graham's work is critical.
His article consisted of commentary on the tract housing units, comparing their
size, color, and locations. The houses were analyzed and studied like scientific
information but made to seem like a lifestyle limited by tmass production.
His somewhat intrusive images of the goings on inside the strangers homes are
also somewhat sardonic. The lackluster atmosphere of Jersey City becomes
a field day for his flip, aesthetic review.
Graham
was also cognizant of the presentation of his photographs. He placed his
images instantly into the magazine as opposed to offering prints for sale at a
gallery. He allows the photographs to be reproduced in mass quantity and
be made available to a wide audience for a low cost. The result is that
he demonstrates the ease of reproduction of the photographic medium, even for
an artist, who would be expected to be more concerned with the uniqueness or value
of an original. He also places the images in a strategic design within the
article. The photographs and text are arranged in long rows. These
rows mime the conditions of tract housing.
Following the "Homes
for America" project, Dan Graham created a diverse oeuvre of artwork and
theory. He began by using commonly available resources such as advertising,
music, and television, to communicate a critical art perspective. One of
his most notable examples of this type, is a work titled, "Figurative." for
Harper's Bazaar March 1968, page 90. Here Graham documented a strip of paper from
a calculator or cash register. The paper has a series of unrelated numbers
in a consecutive series. Graham printed the strip of paper next to text
that read "Figurative by Dan Graham," and the work was displayed in
the advertisement section. Graham played on the viewers expectations for
commercial imagery. The intention of the artist seems incomprehensible save
for that of provoking the viewer of the magazine into a re-consideration of the
validity of mass-produced imagery.
The use of photography to accompany
other art projects is very important to Graham. He has made many site-specific
structures and installations. The site-specific works he makes are typically
temporary. The photograph plays an important role in making record of the
event and work. This approach compares the work of Robert Smithson.
Smithson was a contemporary to Graham in 1960's and 70's who created large site-specific
conceptual works that were temporary and unavailable to most except through photographs.
The photograph becomes the manner in which many people experience the work, and
thus its simplicity is serves to support a factual, objective document that can
communicate a more complex, frequently subjective work of art.
Graham has also used film and video since the 1970's for installations and performance
works that actively engage the viewer. He frequently poses experiences of
simultaneous subjectivity and objectivity, playing with notions of time, and of
private and public space. His deconstruction of the experience of viewing
art has involved closed-circuit video systems within architectural spaces. Using
mirrors and surveillance, Graham suggests the experience of being viewed while
one is also viewing.
The transmission of an idea through the structure
of information is frequently important to Graham. While he spends considerable
time constructing his elaborate installations and video works, he also produces
a great amount of theoretical writing, which accompanies the works and has equal
if not greater importance. He has produced conceptual theoretical essays on punk
music, suburbia, and public architecture. His work is a simultaneous
product and critique of a mass mediated society.