PHOTOGRAPHS
Soo, Mark
Singapore / Canada / Germany (1977 - )
That's That's Alright Alright Mama Mama
2008
Two anaglyph stereographic 3D photographs shown on angled walls
70 3/8 x 92 1/2 in. (178.8 x 235 cm) exposed image size [each]; 72 3/4 x 95 x 3 1/16 in. (184.8 x 241.3 x 7.8 cm) frame size [each]
Gift of William and Ruth True
FA 2016.154

In this piece, Soo plays with the idea of doubling and perception. He presents the viewer with two angled 3D photographs, which, when viewed together with 3D glasses, present a disoriented feeling of doubled presence. As subject matter, Soo selected the studio where, in 1954, Elvis Preseley recorded his hit song “That’s All Right” (Mama). (see Art Daily link for details). The studio environment was re-staged and photographed by Soo. The image references 1950s popular culture through both the (nostalgic) 3-D glasses (see White Hot Magazine) and the Elvis recording (see the Vancouver Sun article). As Kevin Griffin, of the Vancouver Sun, noted, Elvis was significant for his appropriation of black American music, and the experience of seeing double may reference the dual nature of Elvis’ music, and of rock music more generally, by slightly pulling it apart, deconstructing it, and making its doubling visible. More generally, the image fits with Soo’s interest in perception. Following this line of thought, Soo might be deconstructing the iconic era of the 1950s, which has long possessed a mythic –and problematic-- quality of wholeness in North American popular culture.