Doug and Mike Starn

Doug and Mike Starn: Evolution from Photography to Public Art
investigates the pioneering installations and public art by Doug
and Mike Starn, establishes their position within the complete
oeuvre and examines the confluence of media they have worked in,
while situating the artists and their work within the contemporary
art historic context. Intrinsic characteristics of the Starn
brothers’ work are the principles of interconnectedness,
continuity, duality and change, a continuous evolution combined
with a stunning ability to reinvent their work, redefining entire
art genres in the process. Identical twins Doug and Mike Starn,
born in 1961 and included in the 1987 Whitney Biennial at the age
of 26, work collaboratively. The primary medium of photography
characterizes their early work, evolving in the 1990s to include
artist books, large-scale video projections, and installations.
Incidentally, their first permanent public art commission is tied
to the reconstruction of New York’s infrastructure following the
tragedy of September 11, 2001. The goal is to delineate context,
process, and significance of the artists’ foray into public art. An
analysis and interpretation of artistic production, context,
partnerships, process, scale and reception will reveal the
transition from stellar gallery production to installation art and
exceptional public art. Highlights of the pair’s stellar career
include the completion of two important public art projects in New
York City in 2008 and 2010, one permanent and one temporary: the
permanent public art environment See it split, see it change on the
concourse of South Ferry Subway Station at the tip of Manhattan and
the temporary, monumental Big Bambú installation on the
Metropolitan Museum’s roof garden. These outstanding works were
preceded by years of artistic inquiry and development in the genre
of photography, whose path the study explores.