Talk

Sharon Lockhart’s eloquent, carefully composed still and moving pictures explore the conventions of film and photography, and the complex relationship between these two visual forms. Wide-ranging in subject matter, the Los Angeles-based artist’s work is characterized by narrative ambiguity, lush detail and an air of contemplative quietude. In some pieces, like the diptych Maja and Elodie (2003), she emphasizes the role of the observer by presenting two nearly identical photographs side by side, inviting viewers to consider not only imagery at hand but also the pleasure and profundity of the act of looking at it. Drawing upon structural and documentary filmmaking tradition, Lockhart’s oeuvre strikes a balance between intimacy and objectivity, addressing the nature of self-representation and anthropologic inquiry.

Sharon Lockhart was born in 1964 in Norwood, Massachusetts, and lives and works in Los Angeles.

Now in its twelfth year, The Public Art Fund has produced this ongoing lecture series of presentations and discussions by some of today’s most influential artists, critics, and curators, including Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Rachel Whiteread, Matthew Barney, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Tony Oursler, Catherine David, Kasper Konig, Okwui Enwezor, and Lynne Cook.