{"data":{"id":"14445","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":14445,"topgoose_id":3068,"tms_id":14445,"display_name":"David Hartt","sort_name":"Hartt David","display_date":"1967–","begin_date":"1967","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eDavid Hartt has worked primarily in\nphotography and, for more recent projects,\nincorporated elements of sculpture and\nvideo. Probing themes at once universal\nand particular, each of his bodies of work\nfocuses on a location or architectural\nsite, examining what he has described as\n“the built environment as a vehicle for\nthe layering of history” and “space as a\ncontainer for a specific ideology.”\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/43231\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eStray Light\u003c/em\u003e,\u003c/a\u003e a body of work that\nincludes a video, photographs, and an\ninstallation, focuses on the 1971 Johnson\nPublishing Company headquarters\nbuilding in Chicago, designed by architect\nJohn Moutoussamy and interior designer\nArthur Elrod in the company’s heyday\nas publisher of magazines such as \u003cem\u003eEbony\u003c/em\u003e\nand \u003cem\u003eJet\u003c/em\u003e. Elrod’s luxurious interior décor,\naccompanied by the Johnsons’ collection\nof African American and African art,\nwas intended to express a black, modernist\naesthetic that reinforced the ideology\nof the corporation and its publications.\nThe video (shot shortly before the building\nwas sold) is composed of a series of\nlong, static shots. An employee quietly\nworks away, a curtain flutters in the air-\nconditioned breeze, a clock hand ticks,\nand at times nothing happens at all.\nThe sound track, composed by avant-garde\njazz flutist Nicole Mitchell, provides a\nsense of narrative progression and pacing\nto these otherwise silent scenes. Hartt’s\ncamera captures the new technology—\nApple computers, industrial printers, network\nservers—occupying these otherwise\nunchanged spaces and ends with glimpses\nof the company’s archives, suggesting\nits historical legacy. As Hartt has stated,\n“I’m interested in the space between\nfailure and success, as these individually\nare written on the space. It’s not one or\nthe other; it’s a relationship.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500473325","wikidata_id":"Q28871533","created_at":"2017-08-31T10:21:00.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T07:03:28.141-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/14445/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/14445/exhibitions"}}}}