Erin Shirreff, 'Halves and Wholes' at Kunsthalle Basel

We are proud to have been a part of Erin's first solo show, Halves and Wholes, in a European institution, especially one with such a rich history as the Kunsthalle Basel. We produced a series of 9 rich toned, black and white images on Innova Warm Cotton Gloss. It is a favored paper of Erin's, for its 335 g/sm weight, 100% cotton rag, optical brightener-free silvery baryta surface. 

Erin Shirreff is not a photographer, she would tell you, even if the photographic image lies at the center of her practice. Known primarily for her photo and video-based work, Shirreff is part of a generation of young artists whose reflections on photography have revitalized the medium. Despite refusing to act and fully align themselves as 'photographers in the classical sense, their contributions and use of photography cannot be overlooked when one considers the medium.

Erin's work often nods towards art history, for instance Medardo Rosso in her previous pieces, and in this case, Donald Judd and Tony Smith. However, none of her work is derivative of or places these references at the center of their focus. Her resultant still and moving artworks mine the question of the meaning images and objects carry, and how these meanings matter to us. As we negotiate the distance between a physical object and its photographic representation, or the photographic representation and our memory of the object, we begin to understand and enter Shirreff's compositions, forms, and figures.

‍Exhibition photos courtesy of Kunsthalle Basel and photograpghed by Philipp Hänger. All works courtesy of the artist, Erin Shirreff, and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.