PHOTO:Thomas Struth-New Works
Since the late ‘70s, Thomas Struth has been creating photographs about humanity, its rituals and their relationship to the physical world. A student of Gerhard Richter and Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Struth blends documentary photographic methods, technological innovation, and conceptual strategies of display. His photographs are characterized by their lush color and extreme attention to detail, which, because of their large size have a mesmerizing effect.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marian Goodman Gallery Archive
In his solo exhibition “New Works”, Thomas Struth presents two bodies of work, both of which are on presentation for the first time in U.S.A. The first, is an unveiling of a brand new series, a memento mori of sorts, portraits of deceased animals taken at Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. The second, is a continuing series that shows off the capacity of what the human mind can create through an awe-inspring look into nuclear fusion laboratories, NASA facilities, Shipyards, and places of the like. During the past fifteen months, the artist worked at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. The artist worked on a short timeline, usually a few hours were allotted to him, before an autopsy would begin. Even with the limitation of time and only the use of available light at the Institute, he managed to capture the animals in such a way as if they are still resting between life and death. They draw on a range of antecedents, from Struth’s recent photographs of medical settings to the history of memento mori. As the artist said in an interview, “While working on the photographs of technology I did three pictures that had to do with medical situations, operations in which the human body and technology really came close together, so in a way I was already working close to death. In the process of making one of the pictures I met someone who told me about the Leibniz Institute for wildlife research in Berlin and showed me some photos of a crocodile and a tiger being dissected. It really fascinated me, so one day I went there and met with a biologist and started making these pictures. They’re a memento mori, a reflection on mortality, which is something artists make at certain moments in their lives. Life is limited, and to be alive is a gift”. During the last ten or so years, the artist traveled the world to photograph engineering facilities and scientific research locations, Struth wanted to capture the intricacies of sites where human knowledge, ambition and imagination bravely push our civilization further. This resulted in a fascinating series of photos. Thomas Struth’s works selected for this exhibition aim to take the viewers into spaces which are not accessible to most people, as they become passengers on a journey through: NASA’s Johnston Space Center, Siemens’ high voltage laboratory, MMM’s medical modelling program and ABG’s testing facility for air and space, security and defense assemblies. At their core, Struth’s photos from this series want to investigate the human attempts to understand and harness forces of nature, putting research facilities under the microscope and proceeding them with sculptural qualities in the process.
Info: Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57 Street, New York, Duration: 14/11-22/12/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.mariangoodman.com
