PARADIGMEN- WECHSEL IN DER FOTOGRAFIE
Sculpture can now not only be hewn, modelled and cast, it can also be photographed. – Philippe Dubois Photography serves sculptors in their exploration of the modalities of the perception of sculpture, while it also contributes to translating sculptural works into spatial environments through photographic pre- and post-figurations. Photography can function in parallel with the sculptural medium, mutually emphasising and revealing the particularities of the two media.
Such transformed readings of the fluid nature of photography and sculpture are the subject of my theoretical thesis, in which I reflect on new technical processes and possibilities in these two media. In doing so, I show how these new prospects shift technical paradigms: photography today not only involves a different application and speed, but also has the potential for new approaches in artistic practice. It extends beyond being flat in print form, but becomes three-dimensional too when printing on materials as a rendering in digital and other technical processes that have emerged in the last twenty-five years.
To expound on this paradigm shift, I draw on various artistic approaches, such as that of the installation photographer Susa Templin and the photographer Thomas Ruff, the latter of whom is important for the development of the expanded new understanding of photography.
THE ENEMIES ARE GHOSTS – DIE FEINDE SIND GEISTER
In this work, ceramics, which were formed by hand, undergo a cycle of shattering and rearrangement. They are repeatedly printed on with an industrial water transfer process and reassembled. The printing process covers the full surface of the three-dimensional objects with a pattern or decoration. The continuous repetition of these steps reinforces the holistic impression of the imperfect and is an attempt to control the irrational, rampant, and uncontrollable. My desire to include this aspect in my work stems from having very strongly felt the restrictive situation in my environment over the last two years.
They are collections and freaks, placed together as bizarre pairs, differing in scale and jumbled. These objects were photographed and the resulting photographs were printed back onto them. This produced an abundance of ceramic sculptures on a spatial scale that also included welded metal constructions as frames for the ceramics and connecting elements representing a form of exhibition architecture.
In addition, a series of portraits were created from raw clay of people interacting performatively with their own bodies and the clay. These nested portraits both feed into and extend the previously described cycle of deformation and recomposition of my sculptures. In this way, I am able to express my thoughts as well as intensify them and the material I am working with.
