Louise Lawler

It was very interesting to read about Louise Lawler and learn about another artist’s perspective on art. The interview was very informative and allowed the readers to understand her concepts and ideas behind her works. It gives off the sensation of being the artist. The first reading however I enjoyed slightly more because I wouldn’t have ever imagined a paperweight every being a form of photography.
Once again the Walter Benjamin is the determinant factor in all of photography’s aspects, which is probably the mention of his “aura” is brought up. Lawler strongly believes in reproduction, as seen by the multitude of paperweight series she produced. Benjamin’s concept of the aura is corrupted because of the constant reproduction of Lawler’s images but yet does not oppose Benjamin’s idea of the photographic image bringing closeness to its audience. The paper weight like photography brings “far away things close to us, miniaturizing them for us so as to give us a sense of possessing them.” The paperweight becomes a commodity and is available for anyone to get sucked into its own little world of vision. I never envisioned a paperweight to be such a respected form of art. Also in lawler’s explanation of the paperweight, there are different worlds of vision that are developed. There is the first the viewer looking into the lens who is engulfed in the situation within the space provided where one is either watching the situation with the feeling of being watched. On the other side of the lens, or the side where the objects are contained, we can refer back to emotion that Benjamin describes as a sense of closeness and possession.