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until 09.09. | #2042ARTatBerlin | Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung presents from 30th June 2018 the group exhibition “From Disappearance and Appearance – About the Ephemeral in Photography” (> Vom Verschwinden und Erscheinen – Über das Ephemere in der Fotografie) with Nicole Ahland, Ellen Auerbach, Alfred Ehrhardt, Scott B. Davis, Bill Jacobson, Adam Jeppesen, Sandra Kantanen, Isa Marcelli, César Martins, László Moholy-Nagy, Marianne Ostermann, Rita Ostrowskaja, Helena Petersen, Ida Pimenoff, Jorma Puranen, Pentti Sammallahti, Andrea Sunder-Plassmann, Donata Wenders and Francesca Woodman.
The group exhibition combines photographic works on the subject of the ephemeral, the momentary appearance and disappearance, the fragile and the transcendent. Common to them is the blurring, long-term or multiple exposures caused dissolution of the subject of the image, in favor of an image-immanent mood in the background occurs. They do not point to anything else outside themselves, even if we think they recognize people, spaces, landscapes or objects in them. That which is shown appears and disappears at the same time. In many of the pictures, this happens with the help of haze or fog, which evokes an all-encompassing atmosphere and thus allows an emotional approach. The image opposes the viewer and, in his ability to create presence, creates an event or emotional moment that he can relive during intuition in his own imagination and his own emotional life. The exhibition considers the phenomenon of the ephemeral predominantly in contemporary photography through a selection of artists whose works move in the border area of the visible. The presentation includes nature and landscape photographs, interior and portrait representations and takes into account various photographic techniques and printing processes, such as photogrammetry, photogravure or platinum printing.
The Danish photographer Adam Jeppesen (b. 1978) experimented with photogravure, in which he painted the printing ink only once with paint, so that the motif gradually disappears until finally only a seemingly empty, white sheet remains. The American Scott B. Davis (b. 1971) works with a large-format camera and juxtaposes the original large platinum prints in diptychs as positive and negative views, in which the motif disappears in the black of the night, sometimes in the glaring white of inversion. By contrast, Finnish photographer Sandra Kantanen (* 1974) uses digital blurring and overpainting to dissolve the surface of her smoke images in a painterly gestural style. László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) is undoubtedly one of the pioneers of camera-less photography and has experimented with photograms since the 1920s. The triptych in the exhibition shows shadowy traces of vanished objects emerging from the dark surface, oscillating between the visibility on the surface and the disappearance in an abstract spatiality. Helena Petersen (* 1987) uses the moment of launching a firearm only a few milliseconds for her series Pyrography, in which the photographic paper is exposed solely by the muzzle flash and partially injured by falling debris, so that the aggressive force of the shot is not just visually, but also haptically inscribes into the pictures.
Man, per se ephemeral in his existence, is the subject of a series of other works. In their photographic self-portraits, the artists Andrea Sunder-Plassmann (* 1959) and Rita Ostrowskaja (* 1953) both start from their own bodies, which they reveal to disappear by means of a long exposure time. Marked by a melancholy mood and close to death are the self-portrayals of the American artist Francesca Woodman (1958-1981). With excessive vehemence she explores the limits and possibilities of the genre, playing with symbolically charged props, imaging techniques and extreme image excerpts. Isa Marcelli (* 1958), Bill Jacobson (* 1955) and Donata Wenders (* 1965) are also concerned with the human figure, which is disembodied in her photographs in various ways. All these works have in common a figure and a space equally floating in the mood in which the outlines of the ego blur and disappear.
The discovery and experience of moods and site-specific atmospheres takes the photographer Nicole Ahland (* 1970) to the subject of her spatial portraits. Her pictures are the result of an intense feeling in a room, which allows her to feel the “sense of space” (Theodor Lipps). A touching silence is also characteristic of the work of Finnish photographer Ida Pimenoff (* 1977), who captures the specific mood of twilight in her works. Concretely, the dilapidated interiors disappear in Ellen Auerbach (1906-2004) and Alfred Ehrhardt (1901-1984). “There are traces of time and aging that give things the insignia of presence,” Gernot Böhme describes the specific atmosphere of the ephemeral, which is a “co-appearance of existence.” This is particularly strong in the past unknown ruin pictures of Alfred Ehrhardt, which emerged 1942 shortly after the bombing of his Hamburg apartment building.
Untitled (Door), from the series »A Shadow at the Edge of Every Moment of the Day«,
2010, C-print © Ida Pimenoff Courtesy Kehrer Galerie
The subjects of amorphous and ephemeral are often clouds, as in the photographs of Pentti Sammallahti (* 1950) and César Martins (* 1981). In the photographs of the Finnish photographer Pentti Sammallahti often magical things happen, one has the feeling to enter a dream world, which exerts a magical pull. As he holds the sky from the ground, Portuguese-born photographer César Martins flies to the clouds to capture it from the sublime perspective of the flying creature. The photographer Marianne Ostermann (* 1950) deals with the ephemeral appearance of frost flowers. The photographs shot through the icy windows develop them as cyanotypes in which the motifs in the velvety blue blur. As a longing color, the blue determines the Icy Prospects of the Finnish photographer Jorma Puranen (* 1951). His photographs of the Arctic landscape look like frozen dreamscapes. In fact, these are reflections of the landscape on a lacquered wooden board – even the limits of reality, perception and imagination are ephemeral, fleeting and unclear.
Opening: Friday, 29th June 2018, 7 to 9 pm – Opening speech: Dr. Marie Christine Jádi, curator of the exhibition
Exhibition dates: Saturday, June 30 to Sunday, September 9, 2018
Lecture: Wednesday, 4 July 2018, 7 pm, by Prof. Dr. Gernot Böhme on the Ephemeral
Performance and lecture: Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 7 pm, by Prof. Dr. Ferenc Jádi
Finissage: Sunday, 9th September 2018, 4-6pm
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Image caption: Untitled (Door), from the series »A Shadow at the Edge of Every Moment of the Day«, 2010, C-print © Ida Pimenoff / Courtesy Kehrer Galerie
From Disappearance and Appearance – About the Ephemeral in Photography – Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung Berlin | Zeitgenössische Kunst – Ausstellung Berlin – ART at Berlin
