Forschuetz up close, but far from personal
Forschuetz up close, but far from personal
By Parvathi Nayar Narayan
JAKARTA (JP): Fragments Of the Self is an exhibition of photographs by Thomas Florschuetz at the Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara in Central Jakarta. It is presented jointly by the Galeri and the Goethe Institut.
Born in 1957, Florschuetz moved to East Berlin in 1981, where he started working as a freelance photographer. His early work was mainly portraits of severely cropped and slightly distorted faces, with stark, minimalist backgrounds. His subjects were drawn almost entirely from the Prenzlauer Berg artists' community.
The origins of the work on show, however, probably date from the mid 1980s, when Florschuetz started combining two or more photographs. He also started using himself as a model for his photographs. In 1988, Florscheutz moved to West Berlin. Until then he had preferred black-and-white pictures, perhaps feeling that the absence of color introduced an element of abstraction. After a study trip through America in the late 1980s, however, he began experimenting with color and then began using it exclusively.
He has participated in several shows since 1983, including many solo exhibitions in Germany and abroad. He was Artist in Residence in Syracuse, New York, and has received working grants from the Senate for Cultural Affairs in Berlin.
The Jakarta exhibition consists of 14 photographs, presented in six groups of a montage of four, a triptych, three diptychs and a lone photograph. They are all untitled self-portraits, as the title of the exhibition indicates.
The same image
The photographs are exceptionally close-up, often creating extreme ambiguity. The parts of the body are barely identifiable, confronting the viewer with a combination of the extremes of fragmentation and enlargement within the same image.
The most interesting group is certainly the assemblage of four photographs dating from 1986. The top row of three photographs deals with the arms and shoulders, with a single shot of a bent right leg placed below. The clever arrangement manages to evoke the presence of the whole subject. Unlike the other groups, it is in black and white.
There is an obvious reference to the genre of photomontage. However the photographs are framed separately and are obstinately unconnected. The photographs are all slightly out of focus, a deliberate device employed by Florschuetz, to emulate the experience of viewing an object in extreme close-up. This proximity should make for intimacy, but the reverse actually takes place, making the photos cold and impersonal.
It is not clear whether the photographs are to be taken literally, or if there are metaphors embedded in them. Are the pictures a metaphorical comment on the increasing isolation in the lives of so many people today? Or could they refer to the compartmentalization of people's lives? Perhaps they are a political commentary? The absence of titles leaves the viewer guessing at precisely what the artist had in mind, which is a little irritating. The viewer is left to interpret as he or she likes.
Fragments Of the Self is the fourth exhibition in a series called Aspects Of Contemporary German photography being held at Galeri. The exhibition was opened on March 12 by Baltzer from the Goethe Institut of Jakarta. He pointed out that Florscheutz offers an unique point of view on something familiar. Sculptor Dolorosa Sinaga said the pictures seem to present a subject, not an object.
The Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara is Indonesia's first gallery to focus exclusively on photography. Last year it averaged about 900 visitors a month. They attended 23 exhibitions and 100 events. The gallery aims to showcase new talent as well as established names, and is well connected with international photography institutions. One of its current projects is a traveling exhibition, In the Miracle Years: 1945-1950, scheduled to be shown in Jakarta in August this year. The historical photographs were sourced from the IPHOS photograph agency's archives.
Upcoming Aspects Of Contemporary German photography exhibitions will showcase photographers Andre Kelpke and Gundula Schulze.
The Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara seeks to promote photography as a living language that can be understood and practiced by anyone at any level of society. It strives to both present and discuss the problems confronted in a world of constant, indeed, accelerating change. The gallery wants to challenge preconceived notions and the way people respond to images.
The work of Thomas Florschuetz is certainly interesting in this context; its ambiguous enlargements and juxtapositions of the human body presents a familiar subject in an unfamiliar way. Fragments Of the Self is on at the Galeri until March 22, from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The gallery is closed on Mondays.