David Peat

The End of Representation 113telling us that times have changed and we can no longer go to an artgallery or exhibition with that comfortable sense that we are “beingeducated,” “made better,” or “given a dose of culture.” It is no longersufficient to wander from room to room, reading the names of theartists on the little plaques beside the paintings and only stopping infront of work if it is by a “famous artist.” Engaging contemporary artmeans engaging our own doubts. It means no longer taking things forgranted and at face value. It means being open to new experiences andaccepting discomfort rather than always expecting to see or experiencewhat is familiar and easy. Art has opened us to doubt, and along withthis doubt comes a great deal of responsibility.The World as SurfaceFinally I want to return to immediate visual experience and the ways inwhich one branch of art continues to challenge us with the surface ofour world. By this I mean photography. A few years ago I was invited towrite an essay on photography and science for the Museum of ContemporaryPhotography at Columbia College, Chicago. The managerof the collection, AnJannette Bush, kindly sent me a large package containingslides from much of their collection representing photographyover the last 50 years. Most of what I looked at was not scientific photographyas such, but representative of the work of documentary, commercial,and “art” photography over the past few decades. What struckme as I looked through the collection was a common denominator inthe way very different photographers were seeing the world. It seemedto me that our world, or at least our immediate city environment, hasbecome one of reflections and surfaces. It is a world in which we cannever be too sure of the tangibility of things. We walk past an officebuilding and wonder if that is a tree growing inside or if it is a reflectionof the outer world in the building’s glass windows. Everywhere welook we see reflections and superpositions. Glass, plastics, computerscreens, virtual reality, transparencies, television advertising, and packagingall present us with intangible images and transitory objects. Advertisingis composed of overlays, montages, and ambiguity.