Ted Oonk: TIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU

Dutch photographer and visual artist Ted Oonk was born in 1987. She studied photography and fine art in the Netherlands and visual art in Belgium. Her work is presented both domestically and internationally. She has already exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States and South Korea. Oonka’s work focuses on how we conceal and expose vulnerabilities, standards and norms in visual culture. It also invites the viewer to watch or listen more closely with his photographs, videos and installations.

He currently lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU

The story that photographer Ted Oonk tells us is a combination of three aspects, three impressions and three persons. It is an emotional story of her sister Pim with Down Syndrome, which she began photographing in 2005. With photographs, she invites us into an intimate space that reveals many masks to us visitors. Not only does Oonk want to photograph her sister, she wants to introduce herself to us, and she also shows us through the photographic lens how she sees the world. Mom also gives her perspective, as the photos from family albums are also presented. So Ted Oonk does not bother with the authorship of the works, though we will probably ask ourselves who is the author of the particular photograph. Her desire is to understand that all aspects are important, as she reflects in the moment the world as seen by the photographer. This begins to combine personal and social history in such a way that imagery from everyday life becomes mediators of social relationships and invites us into an intimate world, to a nostalgic call to memory, or merely as a simple gesture of social inclusion. Narrowly, these are photos of living with a person with Down Syndrome, but more broadly, it raises questions about our stereotypes, vulnerabilities, and doubts that arise in our own differentness. Our view of people leaving the society in any way is tainted by prejudice, so Oonk puts us in the role of perceiving all works as equal, regardless of authorship, even if the portrait was created under Mom’s, Pimino’s or her hands, or is merely a selfie , which reflects how Pim is seen at the moment, or a simple photo from a family album that takes us with his image on a nostalgic journey.

“This is not about you” breaks stereotypical beliefs and allows us to see Pim as seen by the photographer herself, that is, like a normal, lovely girl.

Minimalism

34 authors of the Maribor Photo Club take part in this year’s club exhibition. The common point of the exhibited photographs is the minimalism that only appeared in photography in the 1990s. The members of the Photo Club Maribor tried to achieve it in different ways, some with color stripping, others with motivation. The recurring elements of the furrows on the Cizelj Field provide an example of the landscape; the sequence is also noticed on the motif of architecture, the construction of the bridge, which was mystically taken into the lens by Bojan Hajdu. In addition to the repetition of patterns, minimalism is also shown by the exposed element, which is also illustrated by Jože Marinič. Thus, only a small snippet gives the whole story or impression of the photographer. Despite its monotony, the smaller details add more meaning to the overall picture, as shown by the award-winning photograph by Zdenko Frangež. He built the composition with basic elements of minimalism, such as geometric figures, a play of light, a contrast between the tenderness of a woman’s body and the saturation of white and black. Even though the naked body is represented, the author has shattered the classical notion of the act.

The members of the Photo Club Maribor had different ideas under the broad concept of minimalism, which is evident in the heterogeneity of the exhibition, which in no way affects the quality, but rather shows a broad concept with several angles.

The beginnings of minimalism go back to the 1960s. At first, these were simplistic, rigorous sculptural works that were produced under the influence of abstract expressionism. The works of art represent a rebellion against America’s obsession with the European tradition, and are often made up of many repetitive, unified elements from industrial materials. Each element of the artwork can also be presented individually and at the same time it is still a whole, since the construction of the artwork is a multiplication of the basic unit. Minimalists believe that basic forms, such as a square, rectangle, or circle, arouse certain emotions in the viewer, and their works often involve the visitor of the exhibition even more with their asceticism.

In Slovenia, attempts at minimalism began to occur almost simultaneously. Their expression also represented simplified geometric shapes, which in our area were a symbol of planned, optimistic renewal, which is in line with the development of socialism and the social climate in Yugoslavia. The emergence of minimalism can also be linked to the two artistic groups of the Neoconstructivists (active activity: 1968-1972) and OHO (active activity: 1966-1971).