Artist Write Up: John Divola

Erica Lynch

Artist Write Up: John Divola

I decided to listen to the podcast interviewing John Divola, for the artist write up assignment.  The interviewer and John Divola discussed a few of Divola’s series throughout the years as a photographer.   

One of the first series they touched upon was from the 1970’s, having to do with silver paint and abandoned houses.  Divola explained how he really liked the idea of using silver paint on items, but didn’t want to get arrested for vandalization of people’s belongings.  So, he decided to go and find abandoned houses where he could paint whatever he wanted a shiny silver. They talked about how the spray paint mimicked light.  John Divola also informed the interviewer of his fascination with evidence of a physical change such as a broken window or a hole chipped into a wall.  He stated that it allowed him to play with “indexes of physical change.”   I liked looking at Divola’s pictures, I thought his Vandalism series was more abstract than what I was expecting. The dog collection was quite funny and interesting to see, but I really enjoyed looking at his Zuma collection, I thought those photographs were beautiful.  

They eventually started to talk about Divola’s series that he completed from 1996 to 1998, “Dogs Chasing my Car.”  I thought it was satirical in a way because the interviewer raved about Divola’s use and thought of motion, when in fact, Divola explained there was not a whole lot of thought into the series.  This was my favorite part of the podcast because Divola explained that photography is when ideas and art are born out of observation and investigation, that one thing always leads to another in photography.  I completely agree and identify with this statement because I feel as though when I go out to take pictures, I start with one idea, and it almost always evolves into something else.