Family matters - Allan Sekula's 'Dismal Science: Photo Works 1972-1996'

Afterimage, Jan-Feb, 1999 by Marya Roland

The didactic and analytical text of "War without Bodies" spells out the social and political implications of the photographs. Wall text informs the viewer the photographs were taken at a military air show and Gulf War celebration. Two copies of Sekula's essay, synthesizing everything from Michel Foucault to the U.S.S. Iowa case in discussing our national deification of General Norman Schwarzkopf, are attached to and placed on a military cot, facing the photographs. Unlike "Aerospace Folktales" and "Sketch for a Geography Lesson," "War without Bodies" makes no attempt to formally integrate text and photographs.

"Dismal Science" has some spatial problems that tend to create confusion in work that is already intellectually dense. The potted palms in "Aerospace Folktales" for example, are placed so far from the rest of the piece they appeared as gallery decor; their intended function unclear. Proximity also precludes legibility of slides in the exhibit's namesake piece "Dismal Science" (1982), which documents the impact of the closing of shipyards in England and Scotland, and "Untitled Slide Sequence" (1972) which shows General Dynamics workers at the end of a day shift in San Diego, shown alternately in a dark room. It is difficult to determine which of the two works is being projected. In the same room, a small booth with a chair and dim overhead light invites the viewer to read the brief text and a list of individual titles for the "Dismal Science" slides. However, the placement of the booth in the room makes it impossible to view the slides and read titles simultaneously. Though it is an interesting idea to isolate and showcase the reader, the device creates an unnecessary obstacle to its understanding. Adding to the disconnectedness, a map showing where riots broke out in North Shields, Tyneside, England, has been placed outside the slide room.

Photographs within "Dismal Science" (the piece) tell wrenching stories of communities laid to waste by the demise of the shipyards on the Rivers Tyne in England and Clyde in Scotland and the ensuing riots that occurred in Tyneside. In one metaphorical image, a piece of industrial waste, a chunk of concrete on a curved piece of rebar, appears to rise from the water like the Loch Ness monster. Another image shows the grave of Kad Marx, shot from behind. Marx's sculpted head is turned away, as if he has turned his back on these communities.

The paradox of the art in "Dismal Science" is that it appears arcane, yet at the same time, delivers an overwhelming amount of information. "Dismal Science" demands time and concentration, and Sekula has struck a blow for the repudiation of our cultural penchant for the quick fix. Rejecting modernist and formalist values, he creates art that examines the world politically and economically and in so doing, provides an impetus for change in viewers' thinking and behavior. For those who pay the "entry fee" - attentiveness - the exhibit yields endless levels of interest. Few works of art challenge and reward to the degree that Sekula's art does.