Cyclone on the Beach

Copied John Divola, Cyclone on the Beach, 1987, instant black and white print, A (image): 26 3⁄4 x 21 7⁄8 in. (67.9 x 55.6 cm) B (image): 26 1⁄2 x 21 7⁄8 in. (67.3 x 55.6 cm) C (image): 25 5⁄8 x 21 3⁄4 in. (65.1 x 55.2 cm) D (image): 26 1⁄2 x 21 7⁄8 in. (67.3 x 55.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation, 1991.24A-D, © 1987, John Divola

Artwork Details

Title
Cyclone on the Beach
Artist
Date
1987
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
A (image): 26 3⁄4 x 21 7⁄8 in. (67.9 x 55.6 cm) B (image): 26 1⁄2 x 21 7⁄8 in. (67.3 x 55.6 cm) C (image): 25 5⁄8 x 21 3⁄4 in. (65.1 x 55.2 cm) D (image): 26 1⁄2 x 21 7⁄8 in. (67.3 x 55.5 cm)
Copyright
© 1987, John Divola
Credit Line
Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation
Mediums Description
instant black and white print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Disaster — storm — tornado
  • Landscape — time — morning
  • Landscape — beach
Object Number
1991.24A-D
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1991.24A-D

Artwork Description

In the late 1980s, John Divola made what he called "studio constructions," roughly made objects photographed against painted backdrops. Divola's constructions, such as this "cyclone," approximated the things they resembled, but their obviously fabricated settings insist on the artificiality of what the photographs represent.
Divola's choice of equipment and materials is notable. The prints were made using a large-format view camera adapted for black-and-white Polaroid film, resulting in images that resemble those produced by early photographic processes such as the daguerreotype.  Divola thus called into question photography's processes and implied believability, amplifying the perceptual contradiction of his constructed images.