Hubertus Hamm – Time Modelling
In the exhibition Time Modelling the artist continues his exploration of space and time by photographic means. A photograph always shows a brief moment that has been wrested from the infinite flow of time and captured in the image for eternity. Every photo is therefore a historic document and, as such, connected to the memory of past things. Here the artist achieves to re-connect the image with its actual place, space and time through an exact labelling of his works: the title includes the place, the date and the time of day.
“Photographs have the fascinating ability to reduce three-dimensionality to two dimensions and to reproduce it within these two dimensions. I myself, however, am always interested in creating objects, and photographs have often provided me with the impetus to create objects.”
— Hubertus Hamm
Time Modelling, Hubertus Hamm’s second solo exhibition at Galerie Kornfeld, features colour-intensive, radiant photo objects. At first glance, the works appear abstract; on closer inspection, however, they reveal that they are based on real motifs. Using a high-resolution pinhole camera, the artist photographed locations where large crowds gather, such as Venice or Barcelona.
While pinhole photographs are usually characterised by an almost unreal depth of focus of static objects, Hubertus Hamm consciously works with an overall softness that blurs the motifs and dissolves them into abstract clouds of colour.
In these works, the artist continues his exploration of space and time through photographic means. A photograph always captures a fleeting moment torn from the infinite flow of time and fixed in the image for eternity. Every photograph is therefore a historical document, inseparably linked to memory. Hubertus Hamm reconnects image, place, space and time through the precise titling of his works, which include the location, date and exact time of day.
After producing the photographic print, the artist creases and folds it and inserts it into a specially designed dark frame. In this way, the two-dimensional photograph—an image of three-dimensional reality created through light—is translated back into the third dimension. The works of the Time Modelling series thus become photo objects whose shiny, deformed surfaces react sensitively to changes in the surrounding light. Past and present form an intimate connection: the work is no longer merely a historical moment preserved in an image, but its specific manifestation as a photo object in the here and now.
In addition to the Time Modelling series, the exhibition presents a second new body of work. The faded black-and-white images entitled Imprint refer to the refugee crisis. The motifs appear only faintly, like fading memories or afterimages. Through waves, folds and creases, the works acquire a relief-like quality, pointing both to the fragility of memory and to our tendency to avert our gaze. The delicacy of these images opens up associative spaces that extend far beyond a literal engagement with the subject.
A third group of works includes a new selection of Moulded Mirrors—thin stainless-steel plates whose surfaces shine in black, silver, gold or blue as a result of a chemical process. The square or rectangular objects are manually shaped; creases, dents and bulges transform the surface into a relief that reflects its surroundings like a mirror, constantly generating new images. The Moulded Mirrors occupy a tense space between image and three-dimensional object.
Hubertus Hamm (*1950) has exhibited internationally, including at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and the Juan Art Museum in Beijing (2015). Permanent installations of his work can be found, among other places, at the Allianz Arena in Munich and at acatech, the German Academy of Science and Engineering, also in Munich.
