Untitled

Adam Fuss

1997 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

For the past two decades Fuss has been using living things-from mushrooms to babies-in his photograms, allowing the chance effects of their movement to help generate the picture's design. For this work, he let loose half a dozen snakes on a large sheet of photographic paper dusted with a fine coating of talcum powder. Over time, as the paper was exposed to light, the movement of the snakes "drew" the image by more or less delicately shifting the powder into fan- and swag-shaped forms. With its monumental scale, allover composition, and gestural vitality, the picture recalls the work of Abstract Expressionists such as Pollock and De Kooning, but here the guiding hand of the artist has been replaced by the ego-less energy of reptilian life.

Artist

Adam Fuss

Date

1997

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Howard and Katia Read, 1997