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拍品專文
"Gursky, like Goya, does not restrict himself to an intrinsically artistic reflection on the media. Rather his media investigations also serve the interests of the history picture or valid image whose formal composition tells of the mindset of the time in which it was created"
(B. Söntgen, "On the Edge of the Event: Echoes of the Nineteenth Century in Andreas Gurskys Series F1 Pit Stop," Andreas Gursky, Basel 2008, p. 62).
Säulenheilige, 2004 is a majestic work which captures the radiant opulence of the stained glass windows of the Notre Dame in Paris. In this piece Andreas Gursky employs many of his trademark compositional tactics to disorientate his viewers and their perceptions, both on the level of immediate visual experience and further with regard to the wider significance of semantics.
The physical experience of viewing Säulenheilige is a powerful one; due to the scale of the work and by ensuring that the windows occupy its entire breadth, Gursky creates a peripheral sense of the image stretching to infinity. Furthermore, by positioning the receding windows at eye level he alters the habitual experience of viewing such religious iconography from below. Through 'positing a gentle incongruity between the subject and the image' (T. Weski, 'The Priveledged View' in Andreas Gursky, exh. cat., Istanbul 2007, p.17) Säulenheilige effectively prompts new way of seeing familiar motifs.
From a representational perspective Säulenheilige clearly evokes Christianity, however there is a sense in which the subject of the illuminated window emerging iridescent from the darkness, combined with the strangely expanding 'God's eye view', provokes a sense of the beyond, even spiritual, which exceeds the referential confines of a specific faith.
Yet while Gursky invokes such sensations he simultaneously sets up a device which subtly questions the representational assumptions of the work. The title itself refers to the Stylites or 'Pillar Saints', a type of Christian ascetic in the Byzantine Empire who were renowned for standing on pillars while fasting, praying or preaching in the belief that mortification of their bodies would ensure the salvation of their souls. Thus, our lofty vantage point seemingly teeters between the human and divine introducing questions of representation and perception which are continually addressed and negotiated within Gursky's work.
While his photographs never focus on the plight of the individual, humanity and the human condition within the 'whole' remain persistently latent. Through a distancing of himself from his subject Gursky conjures a deliberately ambiguous space into which the viewer acts as an integral part. Ultimately, he always returns to the individual, where the significance of personal history and experience become the finial codifiers of his work.
(B. Söntgen, "On the Edge of the Event: Echoes of the Nineteenth Century in Andreas Gurskys Series F1 Pit Stop," Andreas Gursky, Basel 2008, p. 62).
Säulenheilige, 2004 is a majestic work which captures the radiant opulence of the stained glass windows of the Notre Dame in Paris. In this piece Andreas Gursky employs many of his trademark compositional tactics to disorientate his viewers and their perceptions, both on the level of immediate visual experience and further with regard to the wider significance of semantics.
The physical experience of viewing Säulenheilige is a powerful one; due to the scale of the work and by ensuring that the windows occupy its entire breadth, Gursky creates a peripheral sense of the image stretching to infinity. Furthermore, by positioning the receding windows at eye level he alters the habitual experience of viewing such religious iconography from below. Through 'positing a gentle incongruity between the subject and the image' (T. Weski, 'The Priveledged View' in Andreas Gursky, exh. cat., Istanbul 2007, p.17) Säulenheilige effectively prompts new way of seeing familiar motifs.
From a representational perspective Säulenheilige clearly evokes Christianity, however there is a sense in which the subject of the illuminated window emerging iridescent from the darkness, combined with the strangely expanding 'God's eye view', provokes a sense of the beyond, even spiritual, which exceeds the referential confines of a specific faith.
Yet while Gursky invokes such sensations he simultaneously sets up a device which subtly questions the representational assumptions of the work. The title itself refers to the Stylites or 'Pillar Saints', a type of Christian ascetic in the Byzantine Empire who were renowned for standing on pillars while fasting, praying or preaching in the belief that mortification of their bodies would ensure the salvation of their souls. Thus, our lofty vantage point seemingly teeters between the human and divine introducing questions of representation and perception which are continually addressed and negotiated within Gursky's work.
While his photographs never focus on the plight of the individual, humanity and the human condition within the 'whole' remain persistently latent. Through a distancing of himself from his subject Gursky conjures a deliberately ambiguous space into which the viewer acts as an integral part. Ultimately, he always returns to the individual, where the significance of personal history and experience become the finial codifiers of his work.