About the Work
Pictures whose content lies somewhere between a body and painting. What at first appears to be a mere piece of fabric, turns out when examined more closely to be what one supposes are casually photographed rear views of anonymous passers-by. Tamara Grcic comes unusually close to the subjects photographed unawares on the streets of New York. The details of the photos are removed from the context and sequence of movements and then fixed. Colour and materials, light and shade create a surprisingly painterly plasticity. Grcic is interested in the effect of the surfaces: here, clothing serves as a layer, under which a body becomes tangible through what lies below. Here, in the blind spot of self-perception, we often find bothersome features, things which are not quite right: creases, fluff, a hair which prompts an impulse in the viewer to remove the visual blemish, the flaw in the picture. Grcic's photographs are really monochrome areas of colour which thus lose their aesthetic autonomy and want to be 'understood', seized physically.
