Body Parts - Hardcover

Coplans, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576871738 ISBN 13: 9781576871737

Publisher: powerHouse Books, 2003

Synopsis

Following the attacks of September 11, artist and downtown resident John Coplans responded unconsciously to the disaster by making photos of his arms and legs and then collaging the two together into one image. After making four such images, Coplans realized the connection to the aftermath of the event, where workmen were digging up debris and constantly finding human remains, especially body parts.

At the same time, Coplans’ problems with his eyesight became exacerbated; he was unable to see facial features, and he could neither read nor focus. The days became dark, somewhat like dusk, but worse. For some time, his left eye had been useless because of Macular Degeneration; now, the same thing was happening to his right eye. Yet Coplans could still see flat images the size of a postcard fairly distinctly with the aid of a magnifying machine, and decided to continue working on Body Parts.

Since he could not see, the question arises as to how Coplans could take these photographs. In fact, he had not taken any of the images himself since he first began making the various Self Portrait photographs in 1984. Coplans would preview the pose with a video camera connected to a television set and have an assistant do the actual shooting. But once his eyesight had been severely diminished, this system became useless and he had to find another.

For Coplans, the solution came from recognizing the fact that we don’t actually see an image with our eyes—we perceive it with our minds. He then applied this concept to the process of making photographs for Body Parts; Coplans imagined the image in advance and then found the pose. In the past when he could see, it was necessary to take many photographs to match the image on the video, but now it was done in a single shot to get the first half of the image; then his assistant would take the complimentary pose. Very often this was accomplished on the first take with assistant Bradford Robotham. Together with A Body (powerHouse, 2002), Body Parts forms the complete Coplans oeuvre.

About this title

About the Author:

John Coplans has been a painter, magazine editor, and museum director at various times over the past forty years. The photographs he began making of his naked body in 1984 are in the collections of over sixty-five prestigious institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the J. Paul Getty Museum, California; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery, London; The National Gallery, Edinburgh; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; I.V.A.M. Valencia, Spain; and Stockholm Konsthall. Coplans' photographs have been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1994); P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Museum, Long Island City, New York (1997); Paco das Artes, Sao Paulo, Brazil (1998); and the National Galleries, Edinburgh (1999). A founding editor of Artforum magazine, Coplans became the Editor-in-Chief in 1971. In 1978, as the director of the Akron Art Museum, he founded the Midwest art journal Dialogue. Recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and an award from the International Association of Art Critics, Coplans was made Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2001. He is the author of nine books on art and photography, including A Body, his magnum opus released from powerHouse Books in 2002, and a small collection of his critical writings, Provocations (London Projects, 1996). Born in London in 1920, Coplans lives and works in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: powerHouse Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1576871738
• ISBN 13: 9781576871737
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 64