Salt Pan #28, Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India, 2016 Archival pigment print (printed 2016)
58 1/2 x 78 inches From an edition of 3 . Photo: Andrew Lucre
Famous artist and photographers can so easily fall into a cliché of themselves. Everyone thinks they know Edward Burtynsky. Which they, well, sort of do. As did I. His latest work (alongside older work- Essential Elements) Salt Pans (2016) is astonishing, however. And is so, well, not simple- great pics aren’t simple, but such is the idea you kick yourself for not doing it yourself. But then, you/we are not Edward Burtynsky. He used GoogleEarth and saw these photos. Pretty much the same. (Someone asked how did he find these images…boring!!! Seek and ye shall find.) The genius is in realizing how much of a post modern day, well: I thought of Gerhard Richter. Or is that Kiefer. Or moreover is that Agnes Martin? (I reference Martin because I spent some many moments wowing over the peeling underside of a railway duct on late evening with the greatest Martin fan on the planet!) Ok- aren't I referencing another peeling palimsestic snapper...) Moving on....
Burtynsky 'pics' are the thing itself. But they are the strange rejoinder of Planet Earth meeting humans. They are dancing. It is choreography. You can check out the whole ‘salt thing’ yourself. Fascinating info from Burtynsky (apart from keeping hidden in the helicopter –door off- on the dangerous India-Pakistani border -obviously they didn’t tell anyone they were taking pics- just 'we are crazy tourists'). Yes info: that the Indian workers who when deceased would normally be cremated. BUT! Spending their days waist high in salt water their legs and maybe arms would not burn because of all the salt! Those body parts had to be buried rather than cremated.
Up to and Including Her Limits- Carolee Schneemann
(1973-76) © MoMA Further Evidence - Exhibit A
