The Flatbed Files No. 2 - Liliana Porter and "Situation with Dog"

Liliana Porter (born 1941, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was an early proponent of Conceptual art. She co-founded the New York Graphic Workshop in 1964, where she and her colleagues challenged the museum and gallery system by producing shocking avant-garde works. Porter initially began her artistic endeavors as a printmaker but branched out to an eclectic variety of mediums that range from drawing, painting, and photography to assemblage art, video, and public installations. Throughout her career, Porter has used pop cultural icons, childhood toys, and kitsch in her art, often encouraging conceptual playfulness and intellectual gamesmanship. Porter has exhibited in cities around the world, including the Blanton Museum of Art in 2009. During her stay in Austin for the exhibition, Porter collaborated with Flatbed to create seven polymer photogravures, including “Situation with Dog”.

“Situation with Dog” is based on Porter’s photographs of ceramic and wax dog figurines. It is an assemblage with figurine and photopolymer gravure with chine collé. She positioned the black and white image of a ceramic dog head so that it is staring at a tiny, plastic three-dimensional figure of a man that she adhered to the paper on its left. She creates an ironic, visually striking comparison of two very different objects. Both the image of the dog and the human figurine are a few steps removed from their original source, as the dog is an index of a sculptural tchotchke that is an index of an actual dog, and the figure is a plastic imitation of a man in an extremely minuscule scale. Like many of Porter’s works, “Situation with Dog” inspires playfulness through the subject matter, while also conveying a serious tone through the artwork’s striking composition and juxtaposition of objects.

“Situation with Dog” and other prints by Liliana Porter are available for purchase at Flatbed Press. Visit https://flatbed-press.myshopify.com/collections/liliana-porter to learn more about Liliana Porter and view the collection.

"Situation with Dog" (2009)
Artist: Liliana Porter
Assemblage with figurine and photopolymer gravure with chine collé
Image: 10 x 6 in; figure 1in. high
Sheet: 30 x 23 in.

Isabelle Burnette