When I was sixteen and knew nothing about art, I sat through almost six hours of Andy Warholโs Empire. I did not understand it but thought: this is in a major museum, it must be important, what is going on here? I stayed until the museum closed. His Screen Test films are some of my favorite works made this century, but you need to give them back the time they took to be made.
Uta BarthI am interested in the conventions of picture-making, in the desire to picture the world and in our relationship, our continual love for and fascination with pictures.
Uta BarthEverything is pointing to one's own activity of looking, to an awareness and sort of hyper-consciousness of visual perception. The only way I know how to invite this experience is by removing the other things (i.e., subject matter) for you to think about.
Uta BarthI keep trying to find ways to shift the viewer's attention away from the object they are looking at and toward their own perceptual process in relation to that object. The question for me always is: how can I make you aware of your own activity of looking, instead of losing your attention to thoughts about what it is that you are looking at?
Uta BarthI have never been interested in making a photograph that describes what the world I live in looks like, but I am interested in what pictures (of the world) look like.
Uta Barth