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 rika Blumenfeld's photographic works are based on the subject of light and are informed by her interest in the natural world. She has built her own cameras, worked from laboratories and observatories, and traveled to such disparate locations as Antarctica and the Gulf Coast in pursuit of her images. Her photography is minimalist in nature and reflects upon profound, often-overlooked realities in our environment. She cites the writings of minimalist Robert Irwin as an influence and is herself a prolific writer. Blumenfeld's work often inspires viewers to consider the fragility of the natural environment; she recently traveled to the Gulf of Mexico to document the BP oil spill.
Blumenfeld was born in 1971 in Newark, New Jersey. She moved to New York City to study photography at Parsons School of Design. As an undergraduate, she also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. Blumenfeld was the first place winner of Art Interview's -17th International Online Artists’ Competition. In 2008, Blumenfeld received the Guggenheim Fellowship Award, enabling her to go to Antarctica to create several new bodies of work relating to her piece The Polar Project. In same year, she was accepted into the New York Foundation for the Arts' Fiscal Sponsorship Program. Today, Blumenfeld lives and works in Marfa, Texas where she continues to explore and document the subtle shifts in our environment. Blumenfeld has exhibited widely with museums and galleries both in the USA and abroad. Her work has been shown at the Nevada Museum of Art, Stadtgalerie, Willem de Kooning Academie, The Center for Contemporary Arts, Galerie der Stadt Mainz-Bruckenturm, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, to name a few. The public collections that own her work include the Albright Knox Art Gallery, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, The Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and The Polaroid Collection. She is represented by Richard Levy Gallery, and is currently exhibiting at Devon Borden Hiram Butler Gallery.
Art Interview: Erika what was your childhood like?
Erika Blumenfeld: I was born in 1971 in Newark, New Jersey but actually I only lived there for the first 6 months of my life, as my father was completing medical school there and graduated shortly after I was born. After that we traveled west, following his residencies/internships to Topeka, Kansas and San Francisco, California, and then to various towns in Massachusetts. I don't really feel like I grew up in any one place, but I guess I spent most of my childhood in the Boston area, and then went to college in New York City. It wasn't until I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico that I really felt at home in a place.
Art Interview: Your father is a doctor, what did your mother do?
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Erika Blumenfeld
Light Leaks Variation No. 18 (brief meditation on splitting light particles)
2001
6 4 x 5 inch Type 59 Polaroids, 16 clear pushpins
4.25 x 30 inches |
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Erika Blumenfeld: This is a rather delicate topic for me to discuss, because while my birth mother was an artist and craftsperson, she died when I was four. My father remarried when I was seven, and my adopted mother is an acupuncturist.
Art Interview: Did your birth mother's artistic tendencies lead you towards being an artist yourself?
Erika Blumenfeld: Yes, I think so. She was always including me in her craft whether it was macramé, beading or pottery. I was always involved with her art making even at that age; and there are some pieces I still have that I 'helped' her with. I think the early exposure to the creative process was really important to me, it seemed like a natural part of life, and it became something I could not do without, even more so after she died. It is one of the ways that I feel somehow still connected to her.
My father and my adopted mother were very interested in the arts, and always supportive. I continually took art classes throughout my childhood - I was always involved creatively, whether it was drawing, painting, dancing or music. They also took me to see many museum exhibitions, theater and musical performances in New York and Boston. I was fortunate to have a lot of access to art when I was growing up. I studied photography very seriously in high school as well, and that is what finally prompted me to want to go to an arts college and really commit to my art practice.
Art Interview: When did you receive your BFA from Parsons?
Erika Blumenfeld: I actually didn't graduate from Parsons until much later. I was there for three and a half years, but during the first semester of my senior year, they brought in a new Chair who was not a good teacher and was tyrannical toward the students. His negative effect within the department was sufficient enough to turn me away. He actually was fired after that semester, but by that time I was doing my own work and really wanted to get out into the world. So, I left and went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I started showing and selling my art. By 2005, I was already exhibiting internationally, but I decided to go back to Parsons to finish the coursework, and I received the actual diploma in 2006.
Art Interview: Were there any professors at Parsons who helped inform your practice?
Erika Blumenfeld: Yes. I was always trying to understand my artistic impulses, rather than only focus on whether a black was black enough or if a white was white enough in a photograph. The technical stuff came easily to me. I was interested in the deeper conceptual questions that you ask yourself as an artist. There were two people who really influenced me by taking me beyond the technical skills. One of them was Marc Kaczmarek. We had classes in his studio, where we sat and drank lovely tea and discussed the creative process instead of judging outcomes. I really appreciated the way he talked about the works, how he asked questions and the way he engaged in the creative process of his own work.
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Erika Blumenfeld
Untitled (16 February 2009, 17:39:57 GMT) Antartcica Vol. 2 (Land Ice)
2009
Digital Pigment Print
22 x 17 inches |
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The other artist who really influenced me was the photographer Sean Kernan. I did an intensive workshop with him for one semester. He encouraged me to think outside the box. In the photo department at Parsons, there is a tendency to only be interested in photography, and very little interest in what is going on in the rest of the art world. Sean on the other hand asked us to engage with the bigger picture, and things unrelated to photography. He had us spend time really looking at how a line crosses a page of a one-line drawing, and would bring poetry to read in class. He discussed writing down one's dreams and thinking about them as images, in order to learn about the subconscious places we go to when we have new ideas and inspirations.
Art Interview: Did you have a job while you were attending Parsons?
Erika Blumenfeld: No, I was fortunate enough to have my parent's financial support during my education, so I could focus full-time on my studies. Many of my friends had to work, and it was very difficult for them to keep up with the demands of the workload. I was also fortunate to spend a year abroad studying photography at Parsons School of Design in Paris and French language, literature and music classes at Sorbonne.
Art Interview: How did your experience in Paris affect you?
Erika Blumenfeld: My time in Paris resulted in my first artistic crisis. Paris is beautiful, and there were so many things to photograph. But, I honestly didn't feel inspired to photograph, and have never printed the small body of photographs I did take while I was there. There was something about that experience that forced me to confront how I create and ask myself where those impulses come from. As a result, I actually ended up writing and reading a lot. It was a time of really deep questioning and conceptual investigation rather than productive art making. I was asking myself why take a picture, why make art, what happens when you make those choices, where do those choices come from and what do you do once you have made those choices?
Art Interview: Why did you decide to go out West when you returned to the United States?
Erika Blumenfeld: I was really drawn to the area because it seemed very raw, luminous and mysterious to me. When I was at Parsons, I was able to go to the MOMA Research Center and look at the portfolios in their collection. I kept seeing photos of the southwest and west coast by Edward Weston, Ernst Haas, Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. There seemed to be a tangible magic in the southwestern landscape, and I couldn't figure out what it was. Having lived in New York and Paris, I was also ready to leave the urban space and try out a more rural environment to see what getting out on the land felt like. I was ready to take some time to travel around and have an adventure. I had a few friends who had moved to Santa Fe to set up a theater company, so I decided to move there in 1994. I figured that if I didn't like Santa Fe, I would move further west, but I immediately felt at home there and ended up living in Santa Fe for thirteen years.
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Erika Blumenfeld
Light Leaks Variation No. 1 (903 Seconds of a Quickly Approaching Storm)
1998
Type 54 Polaroid film photographs, wood panel, archival adhesive
27.75 x 29.25 inches |
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Art Interview: How did you develop your method of documenting light?
Erika Blumenfeld: I like to call that my 'Eureka' moment. It was one of those happy accidents that came out of a conceptual crisis that I jokingly refer to as my 'existentialist crisis'. In 1998, ten years after I began photographing the light, shadows, landscapes, and people of the world around me, I found myself asking: "Why take a picture of something, what is the function of a photograph and what happens when you choose to take a photograph of something in nature?" When I came to the realization that a photograph of a tree is not the experience of the tree itself, and that the only direct experience of the tree requires one to be in front it, I felt that I had come upon the failure of my medium. This sense of failure within the medium didn't last, but what did was the sense of needing something more from the medium itself. I stopped photographing for six to eight months and tried painting and printmaking. I realized I was looking for other ways to work with light. For example, I was trying to create monochromatic surfaces of light using different materials, and I was always drawn to refractive materials. I realized that light was my medium and that what I really wanted to do was figure out a new way to deal with these issues directly using photography. So, I began using an old camera with a double bellows from 1888. The back of it did not conform to normal sizes in photography today, so I built an adapter for it to fit a 4 x 5 inch Polaroid back. After building it, I decided to check it to make sure it didn't have light leaks, as light leaks are a photographer's nemesis. However, when I checked the test Polaroid, I found there was indeed light leaking in, and it made a perfect gradation of light. When I saw this I thought, "Wow, this is everything I have ever wanted photography to be." It was just light and light sensitive material and that's it. So, I worked with that and very quickly tested the parameters of the material and the medium. I realized I was documenting light over time and that was it - nothing else was being represented. This led me to realize I could work with actual light phenomena, and began documenting astronomical events like solar and lunar cycles.
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Erika Blumenfeld
Light Graph: Winter Solstice
2000
625 Type 59 Polaroid film photographs, 676 clear pushpins.
87 x 122 inches |
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Erika Blumenfeld
Fractions of Light and Time
2005
Ilfochrome, aluminum, laminated
13.5 x 19 inches / panel |
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In my first large Polaroid installation, Light Graph: Winter Solstice, I took an exposure every minute from sunrise to sunset in order to document the winter solstice. The project yielded a work with 625 Polaroids, which I installed in a grid formation so that you could see the trajectory of the sun over the course of the day, and the amount of light that we experience on the shortest day of our year. What started to happen was a sort of language of light, the footprint of light over time, the subtle changes that light makes over time in order to describe something that we very rarely see. Even though we experience it every day in our lives, we don't often notice those subtle shifts. This led me to document natural light phenomena for 12 years.
Art Interview: How does time manifest itself within your works?
Erika Blumenfeld: When I first started making light recordings, I spent an awful lot of effort trying to get rid of time. I wanted the pieces to be about light, but of course that didn't work out. I have to laugh at myself now, because you can't separate time and light. You have to accept that time and light exist in the same capacity. When you use photography to record light, you record for a particular amount of time; they are inseparable within the photographic process, as well as the observing process. I started to embrace time when I realized that the grid was a chronology, a map of time, and that ultimately everything I was doing was equally about time and light.
At that point, I started a series called Fractions of Light and Time which are basically random exposures at various times throughout the day. They are installed either as single images or as chronologies that are reminiscent of the fleeting quality of our daily moments and our memory of them. They don't have any particular time line, because we remember things both in and out of sequence. In this series, I focused on time more than light and was looking at how time itself interacted with the work.
Art Interview: How do you escape the realm of pure documentation within your work?
Erika Blumenfeld: I'm not sure that I can - my intention, as an artist, is to document various light and environmental phenomena. Whether that results in a "representational" image or a more "reductive" image is more the consequence of my choice of camera, and the ideas that led me to investigate what I'm documenting, whether conceptual or concrete.
Art Interview: How did you begin exhibiting in galleries?
Erika Blumenfeld: When I first moved to Santa Fe, a friend of mine suggested that I check out a gallery on Canyon Road, called AOI Gallery, so I did. When I walked in, I asked the assistant director, Laura Addison, if they were reviewing work, and she said that I could leave my portfolio for review. I got a call from the director, Frank Aoi, the next day saying, "I would like to buy a piece and show your work." I showed there for a year and a half, and he took some of my work to Japan.
Laura Addison, whom I've known now for more than fifteen years, is currently the Curator of Contemporary Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe. She has continued to be a huge supporter of my work and we have done many exhibitions together.
Art Interview: Has exhibiting in museums had an immediate impact on your career?
Erika Blumenfeld: Yes, I'm really grateful that I have had a lot of opportunities to work with non-profit organizations and museums.
Art Interview: Is science a motivating factor for your work?
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Erika Blumenfeld
Living Light No. 1 (Pyrocystis Fusiformis)
2001/2004
Pigment Ink Print
Image 16 x 44 inches
sheet 24x 60 inches
Edition: 15 |
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Erika Blumenfeld: In some respects it is. I have always been interested in the physics of light, our atmosphere, and how our planet and solar system works. I am endlessly fascinated by natural phenomena across the entire spectrum. For example, I contacted biologist Michael Latz at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography because I wanted to work with bioluminescence (the production and emission of light by living organisms). I intended to create a live installation using bioluminescence. Being able to go to a lab and collaborate with the scientists is extremely unusual for an artist. It was very exciting for me because I learned how to take care of bioluminescent organisms and learned what their environments are like. Bioluminescent organisms are amazing because they are basically living light.
Art Interview: How does working in environments such as laboratories and observatories serve your creative practice?
Erika Blumenfeld: The laboratory setting is like an exploratory playground in which to interact and learn. They offer new possibilities and media. They basically yield opportunities for me to work in an entirely new field. I have been able to work in environments like the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the McDonald Observatory and in Antarctica with the scientific team ITASC at SANAE, which is the South African National Antarctic Program's Antarctic base. These places inspire me because I get to interact with these scientists, learn about their research and see the amazing natural phenomena that they are focused on.
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Erika Blumenfeld
Lunation 1011 (30 Recordings)
2005
Digital Pigment Ink Print on Moab Entrada 300gsm
Image: 14 x 25 inches
Paper: 24 x 30 inches |
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In 2004 I was offered an artist-in-residence with Ballroom Marfa and was given the opportunity to work up at the McDonald Observatory for two months. I wanted to document a lunar cycle through an altered telescope and create my first video piece. I took off the optics on the telescope and held the film where the light was pouring out, using the telescope to essentially magnify the moon's light. Working at the McDonald Observatory opened my mind to new ways of looking at the universe. I had the opportunity to look at the sky every night and the stars are amazing there. It is one of the best viewing places for astronomy in the United States. You can see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon. While I was there, it occurred to me how few people get to have this kind of intimate relationship with the universe, because light pollution prevents us in many places around the globe from seeing the stars. It also occurred to me that this distance from nature has really impacted us. This experience had a huge effect on my creativity, and was the impetus for my developing The Polar Project.
For me, there is a natural and interesting dialogue between art and science because of the shared pursuit of wonder. Artists and scientists start from the same point: they are interested in the wondrous phenomena that exist in our universe. We do different things with it, and I think each is equally compelling. In my work, I find that I am always pursuing that place where art and science meet. It is really an exciting vantage point for me to look at our world and produce work.
Art Interview: Does working in these environments also pose challenges?
Erika Blumenfeld: Definitely. The biggest challenge has been finding opportunities to work alongside scientists - they have extremely busy schedules doing their own work. I have been very lucky, though, because once I initiate a dialogue and explain my perspective and why I'm interested in working with them, things have tended to work out, and these relationships have been extremely rewarding.
The scientists that I have worked with have been interested in working with me because I bring a different vantage point, a visual voice to their investigations. The fact that somebody is interested in their work is meaningful to them, and visa versa. The challenge is trying to integrate into the scientific community when you don't have a science degree. A lot of scientists are not used to working with non-scientists. They don't always know how they can integrate my project or what I need, and frankly, I don't always know what I need initially myself. This is part of the discovery process. It takes a bit of time for them to realize that I am serious, that I am knowledgeable and that I am willing to learn. I learn on-site, and I create work as I go. Once we overcome those issues, it's easy!
Art Interview: How much do you improvise when you are on location?
Erika Blumenfeld: I start with an idea that I want to either research or experience, and then I seek an institute or scientist to collaborate with. I never really know what art will come out of it until I am making it - I really let the experience and the discoveries lead to the work.
Art Interview: Would you say that art should serve an educational purpose?
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Erika Blumenfeld
Untitled (Antarctica, 21 February 2009 09:27:40 GMT)
2009
Digital Pigment Print
8 x 12 inches
Edition of 50
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Erika Blumenfeld: Not necessarily - I think art should not try to be something other than what it is innately. Personally, I respond to art that brings about some direct sense or mind experience. In my own work, the act of documenting a natural phenomenon is about my having experienced it directly - in other words, the act of making the art for me is part of the art itself. What's left is a remnant of that experience, and that is what I can share with the viewer. For example, I was able to create a series of prints that depict the exact moment that the ocean begins to freeze in Antarctica. Very few people have actually had the opportunity to witness this phenomenon in person - it was a very abstract and stunning thing to behold! I do feel that people will learn something about our natural world through these artifacts, but I'm not trying to be educational. I think, really, I want to share the wonder that I experience.
Art Interview: Does your art change people's behavior?
Erika Blumenfeld: I certainly have been told that it does. Countless people, friends and strangers alike, have told me that after they've seen my work they have spent more time looking at the moon, for example. I met an artist who said that he had seen one of my shows and afterward spent more time going out in his boat away from the city lights in order to look at the stars. My greatest wish is that my work will inspire people to engage more with the natural phenomena that we get to experience here on the planet - that it has done this, even for a few people, is a huge joy for me.
Art Interview: Are you attempting to evoke particular feelings in your audience?
Erika Blumenfeld: No. I am drawn to particular events because of the feelings they elicit in me personally. However, I would never assume that someone else would have those feelings when they look at my work. I am never working toward a particular experience for my audience. I just want them to have an experience, whatever that is for them personally.
Art Interview: When did you move to Marfa, Texas?
Erika Blumenfeld: I moved here in January 2007. I fell in love with the place when I was here in 2004 for a residency at Ballroom. After living in New Mexico for 13 years, I was ready for a change.
Art Interview: Have the works of Donald Judd had an effect on you?
Erika Blumenfeld: The works of the Minimalists have had a huge influence on me. But Robert Irwin had more of an influence on me than Donald Judd. I have read a lot of Irwin's writing, and I find his conceptual breakdown of phenomenology very inspiring and really in alignment with the kinds of thought processes that I have gone through in my own work.
Art Interview: How did you evolve from documenting natural light to doing your Polar Project?
Erika Blumenfeld: It was a natural progression from my time at the observatory. While I was there I realized how far we are removed from our natural environment. We are no longer very engaged with nature or our environment. I started looking at how this separation from nature has played a large part in our destabilizing actions upon the planet, and which are culminating in climate change. Two of the most fragile environments on our planet, the Arctic and Antarctica, are at greatest risk to environmental change and glacial melting. Even though we think of these environments as raw and wild, they are extremely delicate ecosystems, and their demise would have unprecedented impact on the rest of the planet. If they continue to melt the impact will be huge. I thought it would be an incredible experience to bring aspects of these environments to people in other places. Given the number of people who would be affected by catastrophic changes in the Polar Regions, very few people have the opportunity to go there and experience these regions directly. That was the beginning of The Polar Project and it has evolved over six years.
Art Interview: How did winning the Guggenheim Fellowship assist your career?
This oral history transcript is the result of a digitally recorded interview with Erika Blumenfeld on 25 June 2010. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany and Marfa, Texas, USA. Brendan Davis conducted this interview for Art Interview Online Magazine. Cara Cotner wrote the introductory text at the beginning of this interview.
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