Photography Is Cheaper

When asked to elaborate on his potentially self-deflating view of photography, Vik said “I tend to think of art as creation, but photography is just capturing creation — more of a technical skill. Before digital cameras, it was a master skill. It’s easier now, although composition isn’t something that everyone understands. Photography is generally pretty boring, though I’m not saying my photography isn’t boring.”

The photographs range in subject matter, but most feature inanimate objects — a water bottle, some hubcaps, signs — many coupled with cheeky, often hilarious text. With characteristically disarming concision, Vik explains: “I take pictures. Usually of non-breathing things. I don’t want to sound too clichéd, but I like finding beauty in things that usually go overlooked.”

And the text? “Text is nice,” he said, staring wistfully into space, his eyes glazing over. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of a child laughing. Then, after a long pause, he continued, “I like text.”

Many of the photographs, when considered in conjunction with their accompanying text, take up distinctly political themes. In “Valuable Space,” the low-angle perspective taken of a parking sign makes the sign appear to extend to infinity. The text reads “there’s lots of places. we are cheap. that’s all” and is Vik’s response, presumably, to those who claim that downtown Winnipeg has a parking shortage.

Some of Vik’s words are as clear as day. “vote. not for Katz. buy bus tickets. compost,” reads the text in one of his photographs. The text isn’t just a way for Vik to attack the civic government, however. It is often uses as a compositional element in itself, a series of shapes that alters and often improves upon a photograph’s visual dynamic.

“Text adds another spatial component to the photograph,” said Vik. “It can change the visual flow of the picture, separate negative space, add humor, or if people want to read into it like a wannabe art snob some of the text is used as a juxtaposition to either validate or devalue the subject. The text definitely changes the photographs for the viewer. It probably confuses a lot of people.”

Indeed, in some of the photos the relationship between text and image is ambiguous, even downright confusing. “Teak” for example, pairs a close-up image of a small portion of a lamp with a tiered series of words, non-words, and phrases that (usually) rhyme with teak. To quote: “1 baek, beek, beeck, beek, bleak, cheek, cleek . . . 2 antique, ashcreek, batik, belgique . . . 3 ancient Greek, mountain peak, holy week, so to speak, modern Greek . . . ” It’s done with humour, obviously, but also with a delicious anarchic spirit that gives it an almost dada flavour.

When asked about future projects, Vik looked suspicious for a moment, but it quickly passed. “I’m soaking a wine bottle to get the label off. I’m going to put it on my cabinet. I may paint the inside white. Other than that, I would like to do an exhibition of my feet . . . ” When this was met with a quizzical look, Vik quickly responded, “In photographs. Also I’ve been taking pictures of my mouth every week for the last year, I want to call it adventures in orthodontics . . . orthodontics is quite fascinating. If I wasn’t enrolled in architecture I’d be studying dentistry. I wouldn’t actually, though. That’s a joke.”

Art is Cheap, Photography is Cheaper runs September 7 to September 14 at the Gallery of Student Art.