WERNER HUTMACHER | Micronesia

Opening: Friday, 14 November 2014, 7 p.m.

Exhibition: 15 November - 13 December 2014

Artist Talk | Finissage: Friday, 12 December 2014, 7 p.m.

Photographers are always confronted with the problem of the object they photograph actually having to be present, i.e. of their dependence on the object, and be that just the light. For the most part the light illuminates the objects, which are in turn photographable. Within other forms of art the artist can imagine something and then simply realize the idea, without there having to be an object which is by necessity shown. This new work by photographer and artist Werner Huthmacher is the attempt at overcoming these limitations and, while not totally ignoring it, allowing for the object to recede into the background. It is about the idea of the image, in contrast to a representation, and this idea becomes obvious only by way of non-objectivity.

Following the last solo exhibition Neue Galerie by Werner Huthmacher, shown at Loris, now again non-objective photography using color as a stylistic means is the show’s central theme. While Neue Galerie still bore properties of an installation – it being an attempt at a spatially oriented draft for a prominent exhibition venue, exemplified by the Neue Galerie at Kassel, yet without any plans ever for a concrete exhibition – Werner Huthmacher takes this current work from 2014 one step further, or rather, one step back, and refers the image to itself instead of playing at some exhibition space.

Furthermore Werner Huthmacher here decides against the series and the serial as suggested by photography. Rather than narrating a story in a sequence of images, this time the story is to take place within a single image.

With these upright formats the viewer cannot anymore distinguish between areas front and back; spatial perception no longer applies, the pictures appear two-dimensional, yet still offer an immense depth and openness, both based solely on color and light.

The pictures have a character, and step into the foreground as types. These types are various; they do not have to fit together, yet can get along with, and next to, one another. They do not adapt to any place; they stand for themselves, which is not to say they wouldn’t communicate with each other.