Tosh Basco: Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers
Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers is the first iteration of the ongoing and evolving body of Tosh Basco鈥檚 photographic practice. Gathered from a never-before-seen collection of Basco鈥檚 intimate chronicle of daily life, these snapshots function as a record of a specific moment in the artist鈥檚 complex relationship to cameras.
Limiting the selection of images to the context of the past two years, Basco printed and piled hundreds of stills shot on film and re-photographed them resulting in the twelve unique pieces which comprise this show. Flattened within the frame like pressed flowers, Basco describes the stacks of photos being like memory banks in which 鈥渆verything is touching, rubbing into everything else鈥ancing and disappearing and reappearing like electrons in an atom, coming in and out of focus...鈥�
First learning to shoot manually with an AE-1 CANON (a gift to the artist as a 15-year-old from her father) photography has consistently defined the shape of Basco鈥檚 life and work as a performer in more ways than one. In an audio piece which accompanies the show, Basco says, 鈥減hotography brought me to performance/ I learned the stage from the frame/ photography taught me the frame/ the frame and the stage are the same.鈥�
The images in Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers both reveal and obscure the movement of time and the fear that comes when witnessing the passing of life. With a gentle tone and joyful touch, Basco鈥檚 pictures of domestic life in a pandemic seem simple at first. But as the disconnected frames are viewed together (a loved-one wrapped in a wrinkled blanket, flowers wilting in a garbage bag, an indifferent seascape, an anonymous room etc.) the nostalgia of pictures reminiscent of family photos peels away at the genre to show a more somber point of view.
The works presented in Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers are the first act of a life-long photographic project. A testament of humbling ambition and scale devoted to documenting the 鈥榠n-between moments鈥� of Basco鈥檚 life and constantly changing relationship to the camera.
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Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers is the first iteration of the ongoing and evolving body of Tosh Basco鈥檚 photographic practice. Gathered from a never-before-seen collection of Basco鈥檚 intimate chronicle of daily life, these snapshots function as a record of a specific moment in the artist鈥檚 complex relationship to cameras.
Limiting the selection of images to the context of the past two years, Basco printed and piled hundreds of stills shot on film and re-photographed them resulting in the twelve unique pieces which comprise this show. Flattened within the frame like pressed flowers, Basco describes the stacks of photos being like memory banks in which 鈥渆verything is touching, rubbing into everything else鈥ancing and disappearing and reappearing like electrons in an atom, coming in and out of focus...鈥�
First learning to shoot manually with an AE-1 CANON (a gift to the artist as a 15-year-old from her father) photography has consistently defined the shape of Basco鈥檚 life and work as a performer in more ways than one. In an audio piece which accompanies the show, Basco says, 鈥減hotography brought me to performance/ I learned the stage from the frame/ photography taught me the frame/ the frame and the stage are the same.鈥�
The images in Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers both reveal and obscure the movement of time and the fear that comes when witnessing the passing of life. With a gentle tone and joyful touch, Basco鈥檚 pictures of domestic life in a pandemic seem simple at first. But as the disconnected frames are viewed together (a loved-one wrapped in a wrinkled blanket, flowers wilting in a garbage bag, an indifferent seascape, an anonymous room etc.) the nostalgia of pictures reminiscent of family photos peels away at the genre to show a more somber point of view.
The works presented in Portraits, Still Lifes and Flowers are the first act of a life-long photographic project. A testament of humbling ambition and scale devoted to documenting the 鈥榠n-between moments鈥� of Basco鈥檚 life and constantly changing relationship to the camera.
Artists on show
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