Carlos & Jason Sanchez at TORCH gallery Amsterdam
An exhibition of new photoworks by Canadian photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez. Their grim, large scale photographs of the fears and violence in contemporary society will be on show at TORCH gallery.
- (1888PressRelease) September 17, 2010 - TORCH gallery is proud to present an exhibition of new works by Carlos and Jason Sanchez. The distressing photographs by these two Canadian photographers will be on show at the Lauriergracht 94 in Amsterdam. The opening will take place on Saturday the 16th of October between 5 and 7 pm and the exhibition will run until the 20th of November. By using a high standard of production and scrupulous staging the Sanchez brothers are able to create disturbing images of an lurid reality.
The large scale of their photographs enables them to rediscover the human emotions hidden in the stories of a sensation driven media-world. Through smart use of cinematographic techniques they are able to make these sensations of hate, violence and fear tangible through a very clear visual language. While bold headlines are screaming for attention, often only furthering a sense of apathy, Carlos and Jason try to intelligently move their public. This approach makes their works confronting but never easy. The photographs have an initial shock value that leaves open a multitude of interpretations.
Ranging from images of the Hitler-youths to a portrait of a convicted murderer; the Sancez brothers don't easily back away from a subject. Instead, they approach these horrific events in a very personal and empathetic way. Visually these images hold the midway between a reportage and the theater by choosing very realistic subject matters to present carefully composed and obviously staged. In their work The everyday (2009) we see an explosion in a residential area where the resulting dust cloud terrifies passersby. From the poses of these citizens to a missing numberplate on a car in the street, it is immediately clear that this image is fully staged.
This being said, the realization that this is in fact an everyday occurrence seems unavoidable. By placing the event in an unidentifiable area the artist succeed in taking the fear of death by explosion from the context of eastern warfare and place it firmly in a western context. They focus on the impact of the destruction rather than who is to blame or what was its cause. Carlos and Jason Sanchez try to investigate the core of humanity's dark side, without passing a contextual judgment.
Their work is not solely focused on violence and frightful hatred. Themes like dying, hopeless poverty and disease are imbued with an ambiguous sense of tragedy that invites a keen observer to create multiple possible narratives. In Last Embrace (2009) an elderly couple is lying in each others arms with closed eyes on a couch. Next to the couch stands a large container of oxygen to which they are both attached by tubes to their mouths an ears. Its up to the viewer to decide if they are asleep or recently deceased. The Sanchez brother excel in telling a large number of compelling stories within a single striking image.
Their explicit photoworks have earned the Sanchez brother multiple shows in New York, Montreal, Amsterdam and Madrid. In 2006 they had an exhibition in the FOAM museum for photography in Amsterdam. Their work is part of several Dutch, American and Canadian museum collections as well as private collections worldwide. TORCH gallery represents the artists in Europe, Nicholas Metivier gallery in Canada and Catherina Clark gallery in the USA.
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