{"data":{"id":"8437","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":8437,"topgoose_id":631,"tms_id":8437,"display_name":"Paul Sietsema","sort_name":"Sietsema Paul","display_date":"1968–","begin_date":"1968","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003ePaul Sietsema’s body of work encompasses\ndrawing, sculpture, and film and explores the\nnature of representation itself. Conceptual\nyet deeply engaged with material, Sietsema’s\nprojects often involve the meticulous\ncrafting of objects or models that are then\nrepresented in projected films. For his film\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/18610\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Sietsema built architectural models, including one of the living room of the art critic Clement Greenberg—known for his formalist approach to art and emphasis on the purity of mediums—as it appeared in a 1964 \u003cem\u003eVogue\u003c/em\u003e photo spread. The strict adherence to prescribed forms embodied by the art hanging in Greenberg’s living room is juxtaposed with the gilded pomp and decorum of the other model Sietsema built, of an eighteenth-century Rococo royal salon. Sietsema creates an entire landscape of books, images, histories, and bodies of knowledge for these two spaces and then combines and weaves them into a structure that becomes both the material and subject of the film.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQuestions about the mediation of material, information, and their cultural context play a central role in Sietsema’s artistic practice. In \u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c/em\u003e such questions are mirrored in the spatial uncertainties the artist creates for the viewer through his skillful play with scale. Using black- and-white and red-tinted negative images, \u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c/em\u003e creates a network of references and allusions that explore systems of power and visual styles. The 1964 image, for example, which evokes Greenberg’s art-historical reign, was shot the same year as \u003ca href=\"/artists/1384\"\u003eAndy Warhol\u003c/a\u003e’s iconic eight-hour film \u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c/em\u003e, while the making of Sietsema’s\nfilm coincides with Michael Hardt and\nAntonio Negri’s influential 2000 theoretical\nbook \u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c/em\u003e, which investigated new\nforms of imperialism.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500355781","wikidata_id":"Q7153600","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:45:40.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-10T07:00:52.077-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/8437/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/8437/exhibitions"}}}}