Artforum by Parsley Steinweiss

Parsley Steinweiss

Website: www.parsleysteinweiss.com

Artist Statement:
I have always found it natural to look at things from a close perspective. Some of my earliest memories are of watching the dust in the light and wondering what it was made of and where it came from. In high school I discovered the macro lens and the ability to study subjects that I could not see with my eyes alone. I realized that by cropping my subjects closely I was not only becoming initimate with them, I was also abstracting them. By this treatment, familiar subjects became unrecognizable and required new investigation. The shape-shifting ambiguity made possible by the photographic lens resonated with my general sense of a world unseen by the naked eye, a world of possibilities. As a general theme I am interested in patterns of growth. Recently, I have been especially interested in artists that deal with ideas reagrding repetition and organic forms such as sculptors Tara Donovan and Phoebe Washburn. I am also influenced by photographers such as Thomas Demand and Jeff Wall, artists who create elaborate illusions for the camera. Over the past couple of months I have been stacking things and taking photographs of the various accumulations. The photographs catalog documents that surround me: books, papers, magazines, journals, sketchpads and photographs. In Contact Sheets I have stacked hundreds of photographic contact sheets that I have created over the past ten years. The result is a series of lines, each representing a print that I have made, a sedimentary record of creative growth.

Bio:
I was born in New York City in 1979, and have spent all the years from then until now in various neighborhoods of the city. I received my B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in photography, where I studied with Joel Sternfeld and where I beagn my development as a serious artist. After Sarah Lawrence I continued my education at SUNY Purchase where I recieved my MFA and was honored with the Dean's Recognition Award. I have appeared in a number of exhibitions in New York and L.A., including shows at Supreme Trading in Brooklyn, New York, Robert Berman Gallery in Los Angeles, California and most recently the Hartford Art Space in Connecticut. I am also featured in the exciting new publication by Humble Arts Foundation, The Collectors Guide to Emerging Art Photography. I currently live and work in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.