Tamara Janes’ unique combination of public library material and pop culture humorously questions our compulsion for pictures
The New York Public Library’s Picture Collection, initiated in 1915, provides 1.2 million images for users to borrow. Tamara Janes spent time on-site to scan over 1,500 of them! When back in Switzerland, she created new compilations and her own keywords to catalogue them. She then uses this database to design various projects.
For this particular video artwork, the artist blends a selection of pictures with animated GIFs readily available to Instagram users via the Giphy platform. By creating sequences of unusual, intuitive and effective images, she reveals some of the ironies of our multifaceted contemporary visual culture.
Tamara Janes is also presenting at Photo Elysée Set and Setting, her first institutional exhibition.