Hokusai's South Wind, Clear Weather, from 36 views of Mt. Fuji
Jeff Wall's A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993.
(Photo: © 2006 Jeff Wall/Tate Gallery/Courtesy of MoMA)
It's the light box of Canadian photographer Jeff Wall which really stands out in a gallery. Go see the work yourself at the Art Institute before looking at the images online since they lack the power of the luminescent display. Wall uses back-lit boxes to house his large-scale cibachrome photographs, which are usually 6 feet by 8 feet. The photographs depict city life in the corner of an alley or the rise of an overpass. The human subjects don't meet the eye of the camera. They are generally absorbed in the activity of the scene, lending a cinematic quality to the work.
A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), my favorite piece in the exhibit, shows a sudden disruption from nature in the life of some passerbys at a canal. The color of Hokusai's work is reinterpreted in the shininess of Wall's light box which shows movement in a still frame with the gleam of a television.
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