Barber Shop (1936)
Best known for spellbinding animated sequences based on archival news footage of historic events such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the O. J. Simpson verdict, Ezawa has also created his own shadow version of the history of photography. This light-box transparency, generated on the computer using digital drawing software, is based on a Depression-era photograph of a barber shop in Atlanta, Georgia, by the American photographer Walker Evans. Ezawa’s quirky, cartoonish line and individualized handiwork emphasize that there is no image, however familiar, from “out there” that is not also a highly personalized image experienced “in here.”
Artwork Details
- Title: Barber Shop (1936)
- Artist: Kota Ezawa (German, born 1969)
- Date: 2004
- Medium: Chromogenic transparency
- Dimensions: Image: 50.8 x 76.2 cm (20 x 30 in.)
Overall: 55.9 x 81.3 x 5.1 cm (22 x 32 x 2 in.) - Classification: Transparencies
- Credit Line: Purchase, Charina Foundation Inc. and Henry Nias Foundation Inc. Gifts, 2007
- Object Number: 2007.224
- Rights and Reproduction: © Kota Ezawa
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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