EINSTELLUNGSRAUM e. V. Adriane Steckhan: Ereignishorizont

scenes with street cars, horse carriages and pedestrians under glistening gas light were painted preferentially. Whilst the painter went back to post-impressionistic methods the poets and musicians like Filippo Tomaso Marinetti and Luigi Russolo tried to make the transient a component of their stage and music performances with extremely short and noice performances. This meant at the same time that they turned to technical operations to communicate emotional flashings which corresponded with the increasingly occuring events that happen suddenly.

Also the development of high speed photography - already 1886 Ernst Mach and his co-worker Peter Salcher managed to take a photograph of a flying bullet - gave important impulses to be able to capture fleeting moments. In spite of all the acceleration of image production a certain time still passed after each taking of photographs until the films or plates could be developed and the prints were dried. The time gap between pressing the shutter and the availability of the image was closed 1949 by the instance image and later the digital photography. With the polaroid method the chemical process was right there on the image and with the invention of the light sensitive chip the image exists on the screen in the moment of taking the photograph and it can be mailed or printed out. But each of these speed accelerations of image production also caused counter reactions on the part of artists who updated old production methods.

Brush traces and photography
When photography took over the image function of painting and drawing painting became free from an order for portraiture and artists drew it into competition with the image giving technologies on another level: painting was speeded up. So hardly any painter has created as many works as Picasso. After the invention of the polaroid picture Georges Mathieu stepped into the rink to convert several kilograms of paint to an abstract composition within a few minutes. Further increases of attention were achieved through enlargements for the format (for example Pollock), to which photo- graphy could not stand up or if then only indirectly via printing technics because production and exposure of accordingly wide

scenes with street cars, horse carriages and pedestrians under glistening gas light were painted preferentially. Whilst the painter went back to post-impressionistic methods the poets and musicians like Filippo Tomaso Marinetti and Luigi Russolo tried to make the transient a component of their stage and music performances with extremely short and noice performances. This meant at the same time that they turned to technical operations to communicate emotional flashings which corresponded with the increasingly occuring events that happen suddenly. Also the development of high speed photography - already 1886 Ernst Mach and his co-worker Peter Salcher managed to take a photograph of a flying bullet - gave important impulses to be able to capture fleeting moments. In spite of all the acceleration of image production a certain time still passed after each taking of photographs until the films or plates could be developed and the prints were dried. The time gap between pressing the shutter and the availability of the image was closed 1949 by the instance image and later the digital photography. With the polaroid method the chemical process was right there on the image and with the invention of the light sensitive chip the image exists on the screen in the moment of taking the photograph and it can be mailed or printed out. But each of these speed accelerations of image production also caused counter reactions on the part of artists who updated old production methods. Brush traces and photography When photography took over the image function of painting and drawing painting became free from an order for portraiture and artists drew it into competition with the image giving technologies on another level: painting was speeded up. So hardly any painter has created as many works as Picasso. After the invention of the polaroid picture Georges Mathieu stepped into the rink to convert several kilograms of paint to an abstract composition within a few minutes. Further increases of attention were achieved through enlargements for the format (for example Pollock), to which photo- graphy could not stand up or if then only indirectly via printing technics because production and exposure of accordingly wide	photo paper is expensive and its light resistance is limited. Because of this nowadays printing technic has succeeded in every aspect because it allows to produce photographs in any wanted size. You notice: I want to speak about braking/ deceleration and inevitably get to accelerations and enlargements both of which accompany the competition between the medial possibitlities. But here we are still dealing with breaking and the most remarkable with this exhibition by Adriane Steckhan is that today for the first time this year I am able to suggest brush traces on an exhibited work in the Einstellungsraum. Please look very closely: at these photos here they are coated with a layer in which traces of painting have been inscribed. It is about a connection back of photography to painting which has partially technical reasons; because blurring, traces of light and smudginess are caused by long exposures by Steckhan taking the photographs in darkness without tripod. This forms painterly color gradients and also the segmentation of the photographs by a grid of individual DIN A4 breaks through each individual exposure and reminds of picture tiles. Why then this back reference? Is it the agonizing for approval of which photography in spite of everything is still lacking compared with painting ? Why is it not sufficient to capture the moment? Is it benign - even when a photograph is within a concept? And I ask myself for the umpteenth time if there truly is something that can stop the course of time and if photography can support this or if art can achieve this anyhow? Is it possible to bring time to a stop? One says that by activating the trigger one catches the moment. ths is a metaphor from hunting by which something archaic has been invoked that is deposited deep in the cerebellum and is a common relict of our past we shared with the animals. But is this already breaking? Is hunting not rather acceleration? Hunting is both, it may require extreme slowliness when only thinking of the sneaking up or consider the enormous patience of waiting. Hunting is everything else but speeding.
	Vernissage
Supported by the cultural department of Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg and district office Wandsbek
back	next