Nevisian Underground #2, James Casebere

Artwork Overview

James Casebere, Nevisian Underground #2
James Casebere
2001
Nevisian Underground #2, 2001
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: digital chromogenic color print mounted to Plexiglas™
Dimensions:
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 152.4 x 121.92 cm
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 60 x 48 in
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 152.4 x 121.92 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 60 x 48 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 2002.0043
Not on display

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Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 188 May-2009, Ellen Raimond I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. A large photograph in the Spencer collection records a dreamlike image: beyond a dark foreground of water, shafts of bright light reveal a flooded subterranean chamber and a connecting corridor. A fine mist blankets the water’s surface. Light, water, and mist dominate-the room’s stone walls and ceiling are the only elements of substance. Entitled Nevisian Underground #2, this 2001 image by the American photographer James Casebere was inspired by the indigenous architecture of the Caribbean island of Nevis. But Casebere didn’t take this picture in Nevis, he took it in his studio, photographing a table-top model he crafted from Styrofoam, plaster, and paper. He then scanned the image into a computer and laser printed it onto a 5 by 4 foot sheet of paper, mounted to plexiglass and coated with a plastic resin. Casebere’s photographs of fabricated interiors encourage us to question the idea that photographs simply capture reality, and to realize that all artistic imagery is constructed. With thanks to Ellen Raimond for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.