I often doubt whether photos I presented in a work named “Ostensible Abstraction” can actually be considered an abstraction. Was I right?
After a few seconds, I always admit that I was right. Why do I have doubts about whether my set of pictures is abstract? Because there is no one ultimate definition for abstraction. Is there anything outside the world like abstraction? Can landscape be abstract? Or, perhaps, abstraction exists only in people’s minds. Are our dreams, desires, thoughts, or hallucinations abstract? Or, maybe they are real and come from one of science’s theories about the Multiverse? Are abstract paintings truly abstract, or are they only a settlement, a deal between people that watercolor on the canvas is abstract?
The truth is that both watercolor and canvas exist. They are very physical. We can touch them. We cannot say that canvas is abstract. I believe that the definition of abstraction is very open to discussion. It is open to many descriptions and interpretations. I think that we can attach many ideas to it.
The similar issues and thoughts I have with photography. Indeed, everything the photographer sees is physical. Photographed objects exist.
Still, many of my photographs can resemble us of many abstract, figurative paintings. Our imagination can transform visible reality into a fictional world without any borders. The truth is that shadows, stains, patterns, trees’ silhouettes, and many other objects can resemble us unreal forms. Moreover, there are analog photographic techniques, thanks to which abstract forms and shapes can appear on images. Undoubtedly, we can define such works as an abstraction. That’s why after analyzing all these things, I have no doubts that naming my set of images to “Ostensible Abstraction” was a good choice.
I was right. Even if some people could say that photographs presented in the work as mentioned earlier are not abstract and do not resemble abstraction, for me, they are undoubtedly ostensible abstract images. Why? Because it is the viewers’ imagination that counts. By watching pictures of actual, physical places, we can somehow envisage new worlds that come up only in humans’ imagination.
PS
I wrote this text on the 26th of July, 2021.
