When the Art Gallery of Ontario announced Erin Shirreff the 2013 recipient of its $50,000 contemporary photography prize, November 7, following a long season of public voting, a sense of shock rippled through the crowd: the more complicated work had come out on top. Shirreff, a New York-based Canadian, works in many media, her employment of photography nuanced and reflexively critical of its own constraints. Indeed, two works on view at the AGO, “Moon” and “Lake” (both 2012), demonstrate the extent to which her practice agitates against the margins of the photographic medium. These long-duration videos portray two found photographs as they shift under the guise of projected light and an altered focus, and invest the element of time in images otherwise locked in their temporal frames.
Formerly titled the Grange Prize, the Aimia | AGO Photography Prize reduced its longlist of fourteen international photographic artists to four, naming LaToya Ruby Frazier (US), Edgardo Aragón (Mexico), Chino Otsuka (Japan), and Shirreff as contenders for the prize. Announcing a changed agenda and expanded purse last May, the Aimia shifted from a dual-country focus (previously, two Canadians competed against two artists from one chosen country, for each of the prize’s five years) to a fully international model, including a worldwide nomination process (however the prize continues to require that a Canadian artist is selected for the shortlist). A further change this year mandates the shortlisted artists now receive a fully-funded residency, in addition to their $5,000 cheque. But the most unique element of the prize remains, of course: the public chooses the winner.
BLOUIN ARTINFO Canada caught-up with Shirreff shortly after she returned to New York, November 8, laughing that she was so sure she wouldn’t win, she chose short-term parking at the airport. Shirreff discusses the nature of her nuanced practice, and the prize’s difficult indexes of “photography” and “Canadian” for an artist who extends the limits of both.
You’ve told me you didn’t see yourself winning. Why not?
I feel like that quick transaction that happens in terms of people making their judgment online or in the gallery … my work on view at the AGO requires more than just quick look. So that works against it. And also, I have this practice that’s sculpture, photography, and video, and how it all comes together isn’t even clear to me, sometimes. I work intuitively. So in terms of someone looking at my work and saying, “yes, I get it, this is the work I want to vote for,” I don’t think it’s a practice that easily invites that response. There were people [in the shortlist] who have work that has a visual coherence, and a subject matter that’s really apparent and consistent. It seemed like work that could be more easily voted on.
Your practice is certainly multifaceted and multimedia. Does it feel strange to be slotted into the photography genre?
Definitely. I can understand why my work is identified with photography, but I would think that most of the people on the shortlist this year would identify more as “artists.” I might be wrong. It gets tricky, because most contemporary art at this point involves some relationship to image culture. Whether or not they’re actually taking photographs, or just relating to images in their work, artists are using photography in everything. But there is still this more traditional identification with being “a photographer.” Calling it a photography prize, it can get a bit confusing, and it was a bit strange for me. I kept telling people like a broken record, “I think of myself more as an artist.”
Do you have intentions for this prize money, in terms of how it might infuse or alter your practice?
I don’t have any specific plans. I think it’ll allow me to keep making the work, and relax into my studio practice. And not be thinking about … money [laughs]. Oh, and my husband from the other room just said “daycare.”
But we’ll also be going up to a residency in the Maritimes next summer, as part of this prize. The money will also go towards that.
How do you regard the national element, considering you’re based in New York?
Yeah, we discussed it a bit among the shortlisted artists. For me, it’s a vestige from a trend of identifying an artist with their nationality that’s a bit … I mean, you obviously still see it a lot, like in the Venice Biennale, for example. But I think we all have a more nuanced understanding of identity at this point. Chino Otsuka is identified as an artist from Japan, but has spent more time in the UK, for instance. I think the AGO sees it as a way for the public to get an entry point into the artists, like a short-hand. But in my mind, I’m an artist, and, you know, I’m Canadian. [laughs]
The body of work being promoted in association with your practice, here — does it still feel fresh for you, and relevant to your current interests? Or have you moved away from this work at all?
That’s a good question. The videos at the AGO, “Moon” and “Lake,” are works made in this mode of long-duration videos out of still images, I started making those in 2009. And I just made one more recently for a show in the spring. And for a show in Texas I recently produced two videos, for the first time, that need to be shown together. But after this, I think I might step away from it for a while. So yes, this still feels very relevant to me right now, though I do think the work is going to evolve soon. I’m just not sure in what way. We’ll see.
— Sky Goodden
(Image: Erin Shirreff, “Lake,” still, 2012. Courtesy the artist.)