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.