Lars Tunbjörk: “Office”
Le 2011-10-05 18:22:57

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Opening Reception: Thursday, September 20, 6-8 PM The Cohen Amador Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition “Office,” color photographs by Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjörk from his book Office. Falling between humorous social commentary and deprived commercial banality, Tunbjörk's work captures the existential parsimony and melancholic absurdity of modern-day office life and puts in relief the personal struggle of the individual against corporate homogeneity. Tunbjörk's images observe the sterile interiors of nameless business offices that, though different in name, share a lexicon of commercial iconography: neon lights, industrial ventilation systems, thin metal framed windows, computers, filing cabinets, and—most pronouncedly—white and grey cubicles. The series remains firmly grounded in this commercial world with little or no reference to the external environment as though this universe exists as a totality unto itself. Like the artificiality of Thomas Demand's assembled office photographs, the tone in Tunbjörk's series reflects the constructed nature of the world it documents and hints at the immense workings of power occurring behind these thin office walls, as though the sterility of these environments serves to cloister the true workings of a powerful, arcane elite. Yet, by dwelling on the marks and signifiers of the human presence, Tunbjörk's work finds a new acme above the tepid implications of these artificial surroundings. These signs sometimes blatantly reveal themselves in individuals attempting to accommodate their environment to their needs: a person talking on the phone underneath his desk, a man stretching his shoeless feet, women spreading papers out across the floor. Other times they appear in a more covert manner through human absence: a tie sticking out of a closed locker door, barren rows of cubicles like graveyards, empty garbage cans, structures and objects that supposedly abet human action but also conceal human identity; in essence, Tunbjörk illustrates the conflict of the corporate world as it attempts to commercialize our humanity. Through this presentation of the insipid and hackneyed universality of the office place contrasted with the human attempt to project personality and accommodate individual needs Tunbjörk constructs a humorous yet melancholic statement about the human condition in the twenty first century. Born in Stockholm in 1956, Tunbjörk spent the seventies photographing for several national newspapers and publications in his native country. He has refined his style and techniques, ultimately achieving a rare coupling of aesthetic aplomb, like that of his hero Garry Winogrand, with socially concerned photo-critique. His 1993 publication A Country Beside Itself, which documents rural Swedish leisure culture during the rise of post-Thatcher European commercialism, reflects this intellectual and stylistic sensibility and its communicability across cultural lines. “Like Martin Parr in Britain, or William Eggleston in Memphis,” reads The British Journal of Photography, Tunbjörk's “pictures capture a vernacular which is local but which still resonates beyond its own culture.” Tunbjörk has exhibited widely in his native Sweden, including a current solo exhibition at the Moderna Museet. Additionally he has had solo and group shows across Europe and the US, including a solo exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York featuring work from A Country Beside Itself. In addition to Office and A Country Beside Itself, Tunbjörk has published three other photo-books: Home (2002), I Love Borás (2006) and Vinter (Winter) (2007). The Cohen Amador Gallery is located in the landmark Fuller Building at 41 East 57th Street on the 6th floor. Gallery hours are 11 AM to 6 PM Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment. For additional information, please contact the gallery at (212) 759-6740, visit www.cohenamador.com or contact us at info@cohenamador.com.

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