The secret lives of pencil, scissors, egg and wedding rings. Everyday items between fetish, magic and profane usefulness.
Soap, hammer, bread, a lightbulb, plaster, scissors, and pillow – Claus Goedicke (born 1966) photographs things we are familiar with from everyday life, but which are so familiar to us that we normally pay them very little attention. Depicted head on and arranged on a wide variety of backgrounds the artist exhibits and visualizes all kinds of everyday items: describing his colored images as “objective” would be something of an understatement as they are much more sensual than anything we know from the school of the rather “cool” product photography. Both an exhibition of his works in the Josef Albers-Museum in Bottrop (until 21 May, 2017) and a book published by German publisher Schirmer/Mosel entitled Claus Goedicke: Dinge (Things) present more than 60 large format colored plates.
In presenting his photographic stocktaking Claus Goedicke, who was part of the Bernd and Hilla Becher master class at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, liberates the objects from their natural context and showcases them in individual portraits that are clear and objective yet also strangely enigmatic. His items include things that might be considered representative of a category (hammer for tools, bread for food, two rings for marriage), but also individual, intimate things like false teeth, a set of keys referring to a certain wearer or owner.
Goedicke’s photos fascinate for their pastel coloring with which he lends a special charm to the beauty of simple things we cannot help but find appealing. In addition, it is the cleverly selected backgrounds (a scratched chopping board, a sterile cloth, embroidered velvet, smooth leather), which lend the items and their depiction an original, intrinsic, almost symbolic reality. After all, in contrast to commercial photography the exhibited items are not brand-new – many reveal traces of wear and tear, the patina of the user, or are themselves quickly perishable. And so Goedicke succeeds in presenting a body of work, which not only reflects the basic concept of attentiveness and contemplation, but also a pleasant trace of humor: in the middle of the collection of everyday items between nails, oil and plaster is an image of a photo on the wall: “Onkel Alfred” (Uncle Alfred).
Claus Goedicke, Dinge
Exhibition :
Through May 7, 2017
Josef Albers Museum
Im Stadtgarten 20
46236 Bottrop
Germany
https://www.bottrop.de/mq/
Book :
Published by Schirmer/Mosel
€ 49.80
http://www.schirmer-mosel.com/
