Capturing (the) Everyday
I was introduced to the work of Francis Alys last year aftera professor noted the similarities between some of his images and a pushcart theatre I had constructed. Over the summer, a peice of his I saw as a part of the Venice Biennale sealed the deal:
I admire him.
Francis Alÿs
Born 1959, Antwerpen, Belgium.
The artist lives and works in Mexico.
A close observer and occasional manipulator of the quirks of everyday life, Alÿs responds to fleeting and contingent circumstances from the viewpoint of a passerby who is both involved and separate.
Alys did a project in which he photographed vendors with pushcarts on the streets of Mexico City in 2005. I was fascinated by not only the pushcarts themselves, and the effort that goes into making these seemingly mobile markets, but by Alys choice to remain apart from the subjects of his photographs. Perhaps he interacts with them before or after a photo, but from the series of pushcat images, I felt as though Alys acted only as an outside observer to a lifestyle that captured his attention. I always wondered if the photos were a sort of romantic desire on his part to be one of these people, or if his fascination was based more on the spectacle of the images.
Another project of his I enjoyed was ”Collector” and was an image that appeared as part of a twelve postcard set. I am not sure if these were projects Alys actually did or if they were only sketches for projects…
The text below the image descibes the artist taking a small pet-shaped maganet on a walk with intentions of collecting stray metal from the streets. I liked the subtle version of a street recycler who is collecting old pop cans in a grocery cart. Aly’s “Collector” seems to me, the more leaisurely version of that occupation.
