The above image was created by conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader in 1970. This black and white photograph portrays the artist himself in a state of outright overwhelming grief. The photograph is part of a series called ‘I’m too sad to tell you’ which as you can see is depicted by the sole inscription on the photograph. The work exists in three forms beginning with a short ten minute film in which we as the viewer witness the artist weeping, expressing raw emotion directly into the camera; a performance in which Ader needed to be in the right form of mind to produce. He then subsequently re-enacted his private sadness in order to produce a photographic representation of his emotional performance. The image was then made into ominous postcards which Ader mailed to close friends and family. There was a reason for his genuine bitter sadness yet those who received the postcards were not informed of the cause and were just confronted by the words “I’m too sad to tell you” which makes the piece even more distressing and emphasises the isolation the grief has caused the artist. In Ader’s last and most poignant work entitled In Search of the Miraculous, Ader set out for Cape Cod in a tiny boat across the Atlantic where his boat capsized and he was never seen again. Some believe that staging his last work was in fact all intended to be an act of committing suicide and therefore reflects the mindset of a man overwhelmed by grief.
Bibliography
http://collectiveexperience.org/cindy/ader.html
http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/bas_jan_ader/
The 20th Century Art Book: Mini Edition [Paperback] Phaidon Press Limited
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