{"data":{"id":"9359","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":9359,"topgoose_id":2382,"tms_id":9359,"display_name":"Liz Deschenes","sort_name":"Deschenes Liz","display_date":"1966–","begin_date":"1966","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eSince the early 1990s, Liz Deschenes has been investigating the histories of photography, film, and, increasingly, architecture and exhibition display. Using a wide range of analogue photography techniques, her often minimal, seemingly abstract photographs act as “the perfect container” for these investigations. Rather than presenting an image of something that happened in the past, Deschenes disrupts “the expectations that are brought to looking at photographic work,” asking viewers to reexamine history, context, and their own presumptions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn recent work Deschenes has made photographs that respond to the sites in which they are initially exhibited. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/40011\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUntitled\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, a four-part photogram made for the \u003ca href=\"/exhibitions/2012-biennial\"\u003e2012 Whitney Biennial\u003c/a\u003e, addresses\nthe Museum’s Marcel Breuer–designed\nbuilding, its home from 1966 to 2014. While\nphotograms—a camera-less process\nin which photosensitive paper is exposed\nto light and then processed—traditionally\nhave been used by artists such as Man\nRay to record the outlines of objects\nplaced directly on the paper, Deschenes’s\nphotograms are made by exposing the\npaper outside at night, recording the\nsubtle variations in available luminescence.\nThe four vertical photograms of\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;Untitled\u003c/em\u003e echo the stepped facade of the Breuer building as well as the bellows of a large- format view camera, of the type often used for architectural photography. Rather than simply fixedly recording the past, however, the mirrored surfaces of these photographs—which in the present reflect the spaces in which they are displayed— will oxidize over time. As Deschenes has explained, “The photographs simultaneously refer to their history, reflect the present, and will continue to unfold over time.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500333914","wikidata_id":"Q16196424","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:20:40.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-27T01:31:56.846-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/9359/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/9359/exhibitions"}}}}