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Arno Rafael Minkkinen at Tiber de Nagy - New York
Art in America, Dec, 2003 by Michael Amy
Arno Rafael Minkkinen's exhibition at Tiber de Nagy comprised 19 small to medium-sized gelatin silver prints produced between 1972 and 2002. In his black-andwhite photographs, this FinnishAmerican artist sets up dialogues between parts of his naked body, positioned so as to be visible through the camera's aperture, and the surrounding countryside. Having initiated these experiments in the early '70s, Minkkinen is firmly ensconced in the history of conceptual photography; however, his work veers from the slapstick humor of physical comedy to surprising visual splendor. Some photographs are the products of physical endurance tests that bring to mind Nauman, Burden, Oppenheim and Abramovic. It is worth keeping in mind that none of these works was digitally manipulated.
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The lovely Fosters Pond (1989) shows Minkkinen's hands and feet pressing upon the surface of a vast expanse of water that appears to bear his weight. His crossed arms and legs are cropped above the elbows and knees, and correspondingly cut off in the silvery reflection below. In Fosters Pond (1996), two forearms with open hands rise from an undisturbed field of snow, forming a large X against a white plain topped by dark silhouettes of trees. The artist's monumental arm and hand--like that of a gentle giant or protecting god--hover over a distant mountain range in Five Miles Outside Tortilla Flats, Arizona (2002).
These tricks are not unlike those carried out by tourists who position their hands for the camera so that they appear to support the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Minkkinen is engaged with this particular vernacular tradition, whose roots lie in the early days of photography when people were shot inside the studio before fictive backdrops.
There is a performative aspect to many of the photographs. In the surreal Jamestown, Rhode Island (1974), Minkkinen leaps away from the lens so that his body appears suspended in space. Only his lower back, buttocks and extended right leg are visible against a field of snow and water, thereby evoking Bellmer's infamous poupees. Prague, Czechoslovakia (1989) shows the top and bottom of the artist's body buried in what seems to be a river of mud. His white torso and hip form a thick curve rising from the opaque ground. Minkkinen's best works find a perfect harmony between body and nature.
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