Tim Best
Tim Best: Making a Scene
CURRENTLY ON VIEW
at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, Texas
Artist Statement: Making a Scene
Emotion, in my life experience, is the root of all drama. In this body of work I direct actors and models through a sequence of emotions. Rather than assume the role of observer in a dispassionate way, I choose to actively set up these performances in the studio. The resulting photographs are surreal, subconscious reconstructions and rearrangements of 'reality' that come out of my experiences, past and present. The chiaroscuro of the spotlight illuminating the figure in the darkness implies a tension between past life experiences and the immediate demands of everyday life. The work takes on a dramatic focus, which is the basis of my art.
Artist Biography
Since graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Studio Arts, Tim Best has lived and
worked in Santa Fe, Chicago, and New Orleans before settling in Dallas, Texas. Working in photography, video, new media, performance, and sculpture, Tim Best's work has been included in venues in Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, Santa Fe, Memphis, New Orleans, and Dallas. His work has been published in The New Orleans Times Picayune and The Gambit, as well as the Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Best has participated as an artist in residence in the Louisiana Artworks National Artist Residency Program and Gallery 500x, a Dallas CO-OP. He has lectured at Rhodes College in Memphis and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and his work is in the permanent collection of Loyola University in New Orleans.
CURRENTLY ON VIEW
at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, Texas
Artist Statement: Making a Scene
Emotion, in my life experience, is the root of all drama. In this body of work I direct actors and models through a sequence of emotions. Rather than assume the role of observer in a dispassionate way, I choose to actively set up these performances in the studio. The resulting photographs are surreal, subconscious reconstructions and rearrangements of 'reality' that come out of my experiences, past and present. The chiaroscuro of the spotlight illuminating the figure in the darkness implies a tension between past life experiences and the immediate demands of everyday life. The work takes on a dramatic focus, which is the basis of my art.
Artist Biography
Since graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Studio Arts, Tim Best has lived and
worked in Santa Fe, Chicago, and New Orleans before settling in Dallas, Texas. Working in photography, video, new media, performance, and sculpture, Tim Best's work has been included in venues in Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, Santa Fe, Memphis, New Orleans, and Dallas. His work has been published in The New Orleans Times Picayune and The Gambit, as well as the Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Best has participated as an artist in residence in the Louisiana Artworks National Artist Residency Program and Gallery 500x, a Dallas CO-OP. He has lectured at Rhodes College in Memphis and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and his work is in the permanent collection of Loyola University in New Orleans.
