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While watching a video interview about Tørbjorn Rødland’s
new show, The Touch That Made You, at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, I was
able to understand the way in which he works a little bit better. He discusses
an inner catalogue of photographic memories, tropes in photography, and the
viewer-photograph relationship. After hearing Rødland speak for a minute it
becomes clear that his photography will push all the boundaries and buttons. He
does just that in his new monograph The Model out now from Mack.
Essentially,
The Model is a book in which Rødland photographs Polish model Małgosia Bela
over and over again. She appears in ads in the city, on the covers of magazines,
on a DVD case, behind bars, painting in a park, in front of a ship with the
word Trollfjord painted neatly on it. At first glance this book is easily
forgettable; however with more time one begins to recognize the cheeky nature
in which Rødland is making art world commentary.
Many
photographers follow an individual and photograph them. So much so that it has
become a trope within the medium. We know Tiny by Mary Ellen Mark, Tom by
Paul Kranzler, Man Next Door by Rob Hornstra, Conor Donlon by Wolfgang
Tillmans, the list goes on and on. However, what sets Rødland’s book apart from
all of these books is his attitude and attention towards the trope itself.
Often people follow individuals or communities due to some sort of extreme
existence they live or because they have a specific level of intimacy with an
individual. While Rødland might be close with Małgosia, she is still, in fact, a
supermodel. She’s playful, beautiful, seemingly fun, and omnipresent. Rødland
finds her everywhere, so much so that you begin to question why one would
photograph Malgosia at all. Her face is on billboards, in shop windows, random
magazine pages; she is a vessel for capitalism, lust, and the idea of beauty
itself. A few times Rødland even gets meta with his own work, actually
photographing his last monograph, Confabulations, while it rests under a DVD, as
well as photographing a gallery visitor looking at one of his images of
Małgosia.
Purchase Book
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| The Model, By Tørbjorn Rødland. Mack, 2017. |
