ART CITIES:Zurich,Closer-Candida Hofer
The exhibition “Closer” of the German artist Candida Hofer, includes a selection of large-format photographs of imposing interiors and parts of buildings, as well as a series of new pictures, some focusing on singular objects, others exhibiting an increasing tendency toward abstraction and two video projections is sequence that emphasise the sensitivity of the artist.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Eva Presenhuber Gallery Zurich, Archive
For more than 40 years, Hofer has photographed the interiors of actual buildings, most accessible to the public, rarely private ones as well, that are readily identifiable. Among them are museums, libraries, foyers, concert halls, bank archives, exhibition halls, stages, and train station waiting rooms. The geographical range and thus the socio-cultural connotations of her chosen motifs extends mainly across Europe and North America, and reaches in single instances to South America and Asia. Each work is precisely and simply titled with the name of the place or the institution in which the photographed space is found. The actual existence of these spaces is what matters. What does interest her is the differentiation of complex picture subjects, the issue of light, and how spaces and architecture influence people. Yet people are only rarely included in the photographs. She explains: “Of course it interests me that these are spaces used by people, but I don’t have to show this by picturing them. I want to capture how the spaces change over time, how they change because of what is placed in them, and how the things interact with each other”.
The icons of Candida Hofer, are extremely well made compositions of the issues, since involve a wide variety of architectural and decorative details. The exhibition presents a series of photographs of various interiors, two of which were made in Düsseldorf. These are: “Schmela Haus Düsseldorf /2011”, the Nordrhein-Westfalen art collection, and the “New Stahlhof Düsseldorf/2012”, renovated in 2002. Here she has focused on a stairwell, showing its impressive architecture. A symphony in white, created simply by the receding line of the banister. A neon tube in the dark interior of a stairwell becomes a form-giving entity, and dictates the minimal composition on the picture surface. In another work a thin white line runs across a concrete floor, and the photographic composition is thereby fragmented into two abstract sections. In contrast to her earlier works, most of which were meant to show inherent relations of images, the new works more often concentrate on single objects, often in isolation and carefully staged. They explore the ontology of objects, colors, and light. In addition to the photographs, Candida Hofer is also presenting two new projections in the show, “Echoes” and “Roads”. She describes the projections, as opposed to photography, as “Α counterbalance to the weight that static wall pictures can assume in an exhibition. A projection prescribes the sequence of images—but can never completely dictate the viewer’s perception, for viewers can begin watching it or walk away from it at any point in the sequence. A book does the same. And there as well the author cannot control the sequence. That is up to the reader. In addition, a projection is comparable to the fleeting nature of our own seeing, but at the same time provides an opportunity to pause for a moment”.
Info: Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Maag Areal, Zahnradstrasse 21, Zurich, Duration: 22/11/14-24/1/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri: 10:00-18:00, Sat: 11:00-17:00, www.presenhuber.com
