Ilit Azoulay

In her 2013 series Panic in Lack of an Event, from which the present photograph comes, Ilit Azoulay critically dissects the act of artistic creation. The objects featured come from urban sites, her studio, and even the building of her representing dealer, Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv. Every object pictured is selected purposely, photographed separately, and linked to the act of creation: from initial research in art books (the old photograph seen in the upper left), to the production of her photographs (a tripod at center), to exhibition (the lamp rack in the upper right). The final image is composed digitally as a large-scale panoramic photomontage that looks like apocalyptic chaos without hierarchy or scale. Out of context, these objects lose their initial function: the chairs are upside down, there is no window behind the curtain, no film or slides can be projected on the torn, red screen. The composition quite literally shows the artistic explosion that the artist requires for her creation.

Born in 1972, Azoulay is recognized as one of the most influential international contemporary photographers. She was featured in the 2015 exhibition Ocean of Images: New Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and her works are also in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Azoulay was nominated for the 2014 Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award and the 2015 Prix Pictet for Photography.