Momentum Tulsa Spotlight 2010: Sherwin R. Tibayan

A  test shot in the studio for Sherwin Tibayan's Momentum Spotlight project.

The second of the three Momentum Spotlight artists to be featured is Sherwin R. Tibayan. An Masters of Fine Art student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Tibayan is working on series of photographs investigating the role that images, or photographic evidence, play in the way we remember our experiences. His project has a working title of Screen Captured, referencing his use of color slides projected onto a screen.

Another test shot in the studio.

“I am using a large white gallery wall to project color slides that were taken by tourists in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Tibayan said. “They depict the then common and still popular visual vocabulary of the American West: images of waterfalls and rock faces, vast forests and grand canyons. In a sense, these are the exact same types of photos we would have taken if we were there.

“In the space of the gallery and the projected images, I have introduced a small intervention: the use of an old projector screen. The placement of the screen and its relationship to the image and the gallery wall will hopefully provide a space for discussing our increasingly mediated relationship with the natural environment.”

Found color slides from the '70s and '80s are source material for Tibayan's Momentum Spotlight project.

The final images will be large scale photographic prints. He is digitally stitching together between 12 and 24 separate images in order to construct a single photograph.

View more of Sherwin Tibayan’s work on his website at www.sherwinriveratibayan.com.

Momentum Tulsa 2010 will be held at Living Arts of Tulsa October 9-23, with the opening event on October 9 from 8 pm-Midnight. Visit www.MomentumOklahoma.org for more information. Read more about the Spotlight artists in the Sept/Oct issue of Art Focus Oklahoma here.