Gabriel Orozco at the Tate Modern

This Saturday, April 2nd 2011, I went to view the Orozco exhibition at the Tate Modern. As a photography student I will concentrate on this medium, of this very wide ranging artists output, which includes sculpture and found objects.
     On a first quick browse around the exhibition I was not overly impressed with Orozco's photographic skills and felt that he was just using photography as part of his working process, as suggested by Cotton (2009 page 117).
     I then took a more measured viewing of the pieces that attracted me, the first of these was My Hands Are My Heart (1991). In this work Orozco has grasped a lump of red clay between his hands over his heart and when he opens his hands he has formed a red heart shaped sculpture, this is shown in two photographs and the sculpture is laid on a pedestal in front of them. The sculpture would be impossible to read without the images so they become an integral part of its history. This work is one of Orozco's early works and therefore appears somewhat easier to read than some of his later works, he seems to be saying, here is my art it is central to my being, the final sculpture is a very humble item.
    A major part of the exhibition is given over to  Until You Find Another Yellow Schwalbe (1995), in this work Orozco bought himself a yellow Schwalbe moped whilst he was living in Berlin and then rode around looking for matching mopeds and photographing them together. The moped was originally made in East Germany so maybe Orozco was trying to say something about the integration of east and west or just a comment on chance, but in this work the series of images have become central to the work.
   For me Orozco's most effective photographic image is Breath On Piano (1993), it shows the highly polished surface of a piano with the condensation from Orozco's breath clouding its shine. This image goes to the very core of photography by showing the most fleeting of moments and saving it for all time, the act of photography become the work of art. Our attention is drawn to the surface of the print on which image formed which serves to remind us that we are looking at a photograph.
   As you can hopefully tell from what I have written above my initial dismissal of Orozco as a photographer on first glance has changed with closer inspection and time for reflection. Anyone who can make a an image with quiet elegance of Breath On A Piano (1993) is a great art photographer.

References; Cotton,C.,2009, the photograph as contemporary art.New edition.London: Thames & Hudson.