Doug
and
Mike
Starn,
American
artists,
identical
twins,
born
1961.
First
having
received
international
attention
at
the
1987
Whitney
Biennial,
for
more
than
20
years
the
Starns
were
primarily
known
for
working
conceptually
with
photography,
and
are
concerned
largely
with
chaos,
interconnection
and
interdependence.
Over
the
past
two
and
half
decades,
they
have
continued
to
defy
categorization,
effectively
combining
traditionally
separate
disciplines
such
as
photography,
sculpture,
architecture-most
notably
their
series
Big
Bambú.
The
Starns
just
completed
the
installation
of
(Any)
Body
Oddly
Propped
on
the
plaza
of
the
Princeton
Art
Museum.
The
installation
is
in
an
overwhelming
scale,
and
like...
Read More
their
Big
Bambú
habitable
artworks
a
sculpture
that
one
walks
through.
The
viewer
becomes
enveloped
by
the
colors,
the
light
and
shadows.
The
carbon
steel
framing
is
a
great
contrast,
while
the
brothers
made
expressive
use
of
the
old
stain
glass
technique
of
hand
painting
with
black
carbon
to
create
chiaroscuro;
the
darks
have
the
effect
of
making
the
light/color
seem
more
intense.
The
panels
have
a
rustic
character,
this
is
glass
that
works
with
its
hands
for
a
living…
The
5th
institutional
installment
of
Big
Bambú
took
place
at
the
Israel
Museum
of
Jerusalem
(inaugurated
in
June
2014),
featuring
an
outdoor
installation
with
a
permanent
element
titled
The
Strange
Loop
You
Are,
and
another
one,
ephemeral,
exhibited
over
9
months.
Commissioned
for
Soichiro
Fukutake's
Naoshima
Museum
(July
2013-present)
for
the
Setouchi
Triennial
on
the
small
island
of
Teshima-Japan-,
the
forth
public
installment
in
the
Big
Bambú
series
(titled
Big
Bambú
#8,
being
the
eighth
incarnation
in
the
series)
utilizes
and
comprises
an
entire
bamboo
forest
is
created
from
several
hundred
living
poles
in
the
rhizomatic
root
of
this
ecosystem
(new
poles
sprout
daily,
encroaching
the
elevated
pathway).
A
beautiful
path
through
the
forest
ultimately
leads
to
a
Bambú
walkway
tied
with
climber's
cord
directly
to
the
living
stalks
and
winds
its
way
up
through
the
forest,
higher
and
higher,
until
ultimately
breaking
through
the
surface
of
the
canopy
of
bamboo
leaves.
Only
the
visitor's
upper
body
emerges
and
the
elevated
pathway
face
the
Starns’
vision
of
a
large
fishing
boat-
over
60'
long-but
made
entirely
of
Bambú
-
floating
on
the
canopy
sea
of
bamboo
leaves
at
over
60
feet
high.
The
visitors
(8
to
10
at
a
time)
approach
the
boat
on
the
path
as
if
swimming
through
the
canopy,
then
climb
aboard
the
boat.
Entering
the
cabin
of
the
boat-
they
descend
below
deck
into
the
hull
to
see
the
interdependent
structure
creating
the
being
of
the
boat,
a
catwalk
through
the
crawl
space
inside
the
hull
leads
them
to
the
bow
to
the
observation
bubble
which
was
thought
up
in
a
dream
actually.
Curated
by
Francesco
Bonami,
the
first
semi-permanent
Big
Bambú
Minotaur
Horn
Head
installation
was
on
view
for
3
years,
as
part
of
the
collection
of
the
Museo
MACRO
Testaccio,
Rome.
Over
40
meters
tall,
a
habitable
sculpture
enveloping
up
to
60
people
within
an
elevated
performance
space,
double
helix
stair
and
labyrinth
paths
leading
up
to
over
20
meters
high
to
multiple
lounging
spaces
giving
views
over
the
banks
of
the
Tiber
and
Trastevere
to
Monte
Testaccio.
In
2011
at
the
54th
Venice
Biennale
Big
Bambú
spiraled
over
22
meters
high
behind
the
Peggy
Guggenheim
Collection
on
the
Grand
Canal.
The
acclaimed
institutional
premiere
Big
Bambú:
You
Can’t,
You
Don’t,
and
You
Won’t
Stop,
at
The
Metropolitan
Museum
of
Art
in
2010
was
the
9th
most
attended
exhibition
in
the
museum’s
history
with
3,913
visitors
per
day-
with
a
total
of
631,000.
Throughout
the
6-month
exhibit,
the
Starns
and
their
crew
of
12
rock
climbers
continuously
lashed
together
over
7,000
bamboo
poles,
a
performative
architecture
of
randomly
interconnected
vectors
forming
a
section
of
a
seascape
with
a
20-meter
cresting
wave
above
Central
Park.
Big
Bambú
suggests
the
complexity
and
energy
of
an
ever-growing
and
changing
living
organism.
Several
new
iterations
of
the
series
are
being
developed
internationally.
Gravity
of
Light,
a
solo
exhibition
by
the
Starn
brothers
featuring
eight
monumental
photographs
illuminated
by
a
single,
blindingly
bright
carbon
arc
lamp,
originally
commissioned
by
the
Färgfabriken
Kunsthalle,
Stockholm,
Sweden,
took
its
third
incarnation
with
the
Cincinnati
Art
Museum
in
the
fall
of
2012
at
a
cavernous
deconsecrated
church
and
was
dovetailed
by
an
eponymous
monograph,
which
offers
a
comprehensive
approach
on
the
artists’
Absorption
of
Light
concept,
published
by
Rizzoli,
2012.
In
the
spring
of
2009,
the
Starns
completed
their
first
permanently
installed
public
commission
for
the
New
York
City
Metropolitan
Transit
Authority.
See
it
split,
see
it
change,
a
250-foot
long
artwork,
up
to
14
feet
in
height,
presents
the
artists’
iconic
tree
photographs
and
a
leaf
transposed
into
fused
glass,
marble
mosaics
and
a
water
jet
cut
stainless
steel
fence
punctuate
the
South
Ferry
subway
terminal.
It
is
the
recipient
of
the
2009
Brendan
Gill
Prize.
At
their
mammoth
laboratory
studio
in
Beacon,
New
York,
the
former
Tallix
foundry,
the
Starns
continue
to
build
the
first
Big
Bambú,
a
constantly
evolving
construction,
formed
by
a
network
of
more
than
2,500
bamboo
poles
lashed
together.
This
enormous
studio
allows
Doug
and
Mike
to
work
in
dialogue
between
Big
Bambú
and
their
many
concurrent
series:
most
recently
The
No
Mind
Not
Thinks
No
Things
and
other
Buddhist
explorations-
the
Absorption
of
Light
concept,
alleverythingthatisyou-
their
photomicrographs
of
snow
crystals,
and
their
re-exploration
of
the
late
19th
century
color
carbon
printing
process.
Through
their
carbon-prints,
the
Starns
mingle
gilding
techniques
to
the
painterly
photo-process,
and
further
advance
their
metaphorical
lexicon
on
light
with
photographs
of
Buddhist
statuary.
Attracted
to
Light,
To
Find
God,
not
the
Devil’s
Insides
and
alleverythingthatisyou
are
some
of
the
Starns’
monographic
publications.
The
brothers
are
currently
preparing
a
new
artist
book
based
on
their
iconic
photograph
of
Ganjin
and
Big
Bambú.
The
Starns
were
represented
by
Leo
Castelli
from
1989
until
his
death
in
1999.
Their
art
has
been
the
object
of
numerous
solo
and
group
exhibitions
in
museums
and
galleries
worldwide.
The
Starns
have
received
many
honors
including
two
National
Endowment
for
the
Arts
Grants
in
1987
and
1995;
The
International
Center
for
Photography’s
Infinity
Award
for
Fine
Art
Photography
in
1992;
and,
artists
in
residency
at
NASA
in
the
mid-nineties.
They
have
received
critical
acclaim
in
The
New
York
Times,
Dagens
Nyheter,
Corriere
della
Sera,
Le
Figaro,
The
Times
(London),
Art
in
America,
and
Artforum
amongst
many
other
notable
media.
Major
artworks
by
the
Starns
are
represented
in
public
and
private
collections
including:
The
Museum
of
Modern
Art
(NYC);
San
Francisco
Museum
of
Modern
Art
(SF);
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum,
(NYC);
The
Jewish
Museum,
(NYC);
The
Metropolitan
Museum
of
Art
(NYC);
Moderna
Museet
(Stockholm);
The
National
Gallery
of
Victoria
(Melbourne);
Whitney
Museum
of
American
Art
(NYC);
Yokohama
Museum
of
Art
(Japan);
La
Bibliotèque
Nationale
(Paris);
La
Maison
Européenne
de
la
Photographie
(Paris);
Los
Angeles
County
Museum
of
Art,
amongst
many
others.
