Lightboxes

In 2023 I was fortunate to have a solo exhibition at Reminders Photography Stronghold in Tokyo, which is run by Yumi Goto. We worked together to curate my work for the show, and it was here that I was first able to utilize the big lightboxes.

I think of the lightboxes as a further attempt at abstraction of the landscape. And so I chose three images that represent satellite imagery. They play with size, scale, location and texture. Are we looking at something on a very small scale, like through a microscope, or something huge, through a telescope?

The landscape being backlit offers an additional dimension. The lightboxes also allowed me to remove the images from the wall. And I began placing images flat on the floor, or vertically on the floor, so the viewer has to stand close and look down or stand further back. All of this mimics the variations of looking. The way the observers bend down and crane their necks to line their eyes up with the telescope. Or with no extra glass, we turn our heads up high to see the moon and the stars. As my work introduces more elements of installation, I will continue to utilize the transparency, so that images will continue to exist abstracted, curved, angled and backlit.

David Steinberg is part of Der Greif X Grisebach: “New Positions”.

Check out his Artist Feature Ouroboros.