Aram Tanis, Deconstruction, 2006
Series of black & white photographs, C - prints
Courtesy of the artist
Deconstruction2006 Aram Tanis? images of city architecture and its inhabitants reminds us at first glance of the strict compositions in the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, mixed with identity and gender issues familiar to us from the work of artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans or John Coplan. Whilst the Bechers documented and aestheticized industrial history, Tanis? aesthetic strategy is the result of a preoccupation with buildings, isolated life in big cities and their mass-produced, anonymous neighborhoods and ghettos. Tanis rebels against society?s standardization: ?Media swamps us with sex and stereotypes, how people should act and look?. His recent series Deconstruction was taken in the Bijlmer, a suburb of South Amsterdam, known for its 70s high-rise buildings, migrant population and high crime rate. The series show the torso of an overweight woman in different static positions, interspersed with images of a block of flats shot from a low angle. The woman occupies the entire frame, as if trapped in a claustrophobic environment with no means of escape.
