Jeff Wall-Invisible Man
After "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue 1999–2000
Transparency in lightbox 1740 x 2505 mm
Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel
Cinematographic photograph
© The artist
Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man centres on a black man who, during a street riot, falls into a forgotten room in the cellar of a large apartment building in New York and decides to stay there, living hidden away. The novel begins with a description of the protagonist's subterranean home, emphasising the ceiling covered with 1,369 illegally connected light bulbs.
There is a parallel between the place of light in the novel and Wall's own photographic practice. Ellison's character declares: ‘Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well.' Wall's use of a light source behind his pictures is a way of bringing his own 'invisible' subjects to the fore, so giving form to the overlooked in society.
'The room has been furnished and even cluttered with his possessions, some purchased, some found, some fabricated, a few saved from before he went underground.'
From prologue to Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison:
'Perhaps you'll think strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form … Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death.'
