CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/27/2014

Anne Collier

In the catalogue to MCA Chicago's current Anne Collier exhibition, curator Michael Darling writes, "Collier is a consummate rummager, constantly scouring eBay, thrift stores, and used book and record shops in search of evocative materials for use in her photographs. In 2007, for instance, she made a photograph of a 1970s-era poster of a nude woman at the beach, walking out into the surf. The calligraphic 'California' logo at the bottom right corner helps classify this image into the category of deflected self-portraits found throughout the artist’s repertoire: a California girl who has a particular attachment to the ocean. But Collier has also become a connoisseur of such outré images, often tracking down the original photographer or finding rare versions of similar material. She returned to this imagery in 2013 when she found a negative from the same photo shoot, which yielded the original poster on eBay, and then made a large scale print of it. 'Negative (California)' (2013) moves away from the dated, slightly ironic nostalgia of the original image and brings new gravitas to the picture, easily allowing us to imagine that this figure, by now clearly a possible stand-in for the artist, is boldly stepping out into the dark unknown. It is not outlandish to think of this as Collier’s take on of Yves Klein’s famous 'Leap into the Void' (1960), another self-portrait addressing the bravery, faith, and risks of all meaningful artistic action."