Chris Engman – Landscapes. Berlin - L.A Trilogie I
“Landscapes” is an exhibition by photographer Chris Engman, who is based in LA, and the first part of our Berlin – LA trilogy. Following an invitation by 68projects, Engman worked in Berlin for two months during the summer of 2015. The result is an impressive series of photos, which again questions the connection between image and reality and thus exposes our conventional seeing habits. The works from his Berlin studio are juxtaposed with photos taken on the West coast of the US, many of them in the desert.
At the origin of Chris Engman’s work, there is an idea, a concept and in-depth research. Themes immanent to photography, such as time, transience, light and the question of reproducing reality, are central to his work. Here the artist primarily works with deception, illusion and the irritation of the spectator.
My work takes the human condition as its central theme and examines the most fundamental of issues: the inexplicable fact of our existence, the ungraspable experience of time, and the illusive and unknowable nature of reality. It calls attention to our misperceptions: the gulf that exists between how we see and how we think we see; how we think and how we think we think; and the inconstant and constructed nature of memory.
— Chris Engman
We are very pleased to announce “Landscapes”, an exhibition by photographer Chris Engman and the first part of the Berlin–L.A. Trilogy. Following an invitation by 68projects, Engman (1978, lives and works in Los Angeles) worked in Berlin for two months during the summer of 2015. The result is an impressive series of photographs that once again questions the relationship between image and reality, exposing conventional habits of seeing. Works produced in his Berlin studio are juxtaposed with photographs taken on the west coast of the United States, many of them in desert landscapes.
At the core of Chris Engman’s practice lies an idea, a concept and extensive research. Themes intrinsic to photography—such as time, transience, light and the question of whether reality can be reproduced—are central to his work. Engman frequently employs deception, illusion and the deliberate irritation of the viewer. In the work Three Squares (2006), for example, only one of the depicted forms is actually a square; the others are a rectangle and a trapezium, an illusion created solely through camera positioning.
Engman’s latest work Landscape for Candace was created in the summer of 2015 in his Kreuzberg studio. The title refers to Candace “Caddy” Compson, a character from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. The novel’s complex narrative structure, based on the inner monologues of three narrators, mirrors the layered nature of Engman’s work. The photograph shows a view of an artist’s studio with a tree at its centre. Only upon closer inspection does it become apparent that the scene is an illusionistic construction. It is difficult to determine which elements are “real” and which are assembled and re-photographed from photocopies, such as the tree itself.
While the artist’s studio forms the focus of this recent series, Engman’s earlier works were produced during extended drives to deserted locations along the US west coast—places he refers to as “settings” or “empty canvases,” free of disruptive associations. These temporary interventions and sculptures were elaborately constructed from simple materials such as sand, plywood, rope or concrete blocks. Once photographed, the installations were abandoned and left behind.
Chris Engman studied photography at the University of Washington in Seattle and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States and Europe and is held in notable collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; the Ines Musumeci Greco Collection, Rome; the Microsoft Collection, Seattle; the Manfred Leist Collection, Munich; and the Sir Elton John Collection, London.
Chris Engman will be present at the opening. An artist talk with Chris Engman and art historian Julia Rosenbaum will take place on Saturday, November 28 at 4 pm at 68projects.
