Courtesy Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto

John Massey, "Pink Dawn," from the series “This Land (The Photographs),” (2005–08). Archival digital print, 271/2 x 343/4 in.

October 2008 Reviews

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Photoconceptualism has been synonymous with contemporary Canadian art ever since the rise, in the mid-1980s, of Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham, and other artists associated with the Vancouver School. Perhaps because he is Toronto based, John Massey hasn’t received the same international recognition as his contemporaries despite sharing similar concerns, including the idea of photographs as constructs. In his latest series, “This Land (The Photographs; 2005–2008),” Massey wryly positions the luxury car as the apogee of modernism. Massey captures the well-appointed interiors of high-end automobiles with uncanny detail by using a large-format camera. Beyond the automobiles’ windows are vistas of sunrises and sunsets over tranquil forests and bodies of water, also shot by Massey. When digitally combined, the foregrounds and backgrounds of these high-resolution photographs remain equally in focus, resulting in hyperrealistic imagery that is discomfiting. Visually, Massey references familiar tropes of car advertising but, conceptually, these photographs seem informed by a Ballardian view of technology that is fetishistic and a bit paranoid. Viewers are required to reconcile their attraction to such manipulated imagery with the current hard realities of soaring oil prices, economies edging toward recession, and an environment irreversibly compromised by the lifestyle choices reflected in the photographs. Rather than catering to a consumer’s dream of boundless freedom, these photographs suggest a world that is closing in.

"John Massey" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' October 2008 Table of Contents.