Joe Clark British, b. 1982
26 3/4 x 20 7/8 in
The title simultaneously refers both to Willem Flusser's conception of the camera and associated systems as a 'black box' - an amalgam of technical systems that escape the comprehension of the end user - and a more magical kind of black box. I think I was thinking perhaps of Islam's Kaaba as I had seen and photographed a derelict copy of it made for a film in the Anti-Atlas plain while I was doing research for the Asset Management series.
The image in front is a simple exercise in studio photography (creating tone and volume from a white styrene form via the careful placement of a single light and reflector), but also results in an iconic motif of sorts. This floats above a marble museum floor that I photographed in Marrakech. The specific juxtaposition of these elements was an intuitive one. The perspective of the two separately photographed pieces of floor converge as they have been flipped, contriving an infinitely receding space that the styrene form floats over. The framing completes the work as it provides a 'vitrine' to contain the spaces and lays on an additional allusion to the presentation of religious artifacts.
Joe Clark (Jun 2012)