Donata Wenders »

"Gelesene Zeit"

Photographic studies

20 January – 6 April 2018

Opening: Saturday, 20 January, 11am-3pm

Johanna Breede PHOTOKUNST

Fasanenstr. 69, 10719 Berlin
T +49 (0)30-889 13 590
photokunst@breede.de
www.johanna-breede.com
www.facebook.com/Johanna-Breede
Tue-Fri 11am-6pm + by app.

We all shine. We shine far beyond our days – our light continues to travel throughout time, infinitely. "We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun", John Lennon promised in his 1970's song "Instant Karma". We seem to go on and on and on. Perhaps this is one of the most unfathomable aspects of humanity. The enormity of this idea has shaped myths, artistic masterpieces and the paths of lives. It has influenced the thinking of philosophers and has given poets new forms of expression.

With her photographs, the artist Donata Wenders (b. Berlin, 1965) has often tried to expound upon the light that just barely shines through the cracks. "In my photographs," she says, "I am only interested in what can be seen between the lines – what pulls you back again and again, pushing us forward, towards a new clarity."

Wenders takes photographs that appear as jewel-like, visual poems. Delicate treasures in a world of big claims and loud voices. In these pictures, the artist makes no irrefutable argument. There are no theses. No world views. Rather, these photographs are sketches of the allure of the unspeakable; of an overlooked nuance left for eternity in one single frame of time. Donata Wenders' photographs open up associations. They leave you unsettled. They stir questions; they are the stepping stones to significant reflection. What happens when the light of our age illuminates the very darkness of our being? What should our lives reflect? Upon whom do we spend our time reflecting?

So, in the end, it's always about the light. Donata Wenders says that this light exists as a kind of teacher, a master. In each of her photographs, the light takes over the direction. Through the years, it has evolved from being a means of design, and it has now become the actual protagonist of her images. We see this when she plays with the tender magic of winter light in her 2010 series "In the Snow" , and a year later when she visualizes the veils of light on a fog bank with "Portrait in a Haze".

Now Donata Wenders is back with new surveys of light. In this two-part exhibition entitled "Read Time", which will be on display at the Johanna Breede PHOTOKUNST Gallery in Berlin from January 20 to April 6 2018, the artist will be showing portraits and poetic body studies that will once again examine the almost inexhaustible theme of light, through time and movement. For this exhibition, Wenders created delicate photogravures - an almost forgotten form of fine-print processing – that carry the movements of actress Arijana Antunovic in an almost transparent trail of light. The light produced by these long exposures is at once recognizable and at the same time seductive and inviting introspection.

"Gelesene Zeit" is an exhibition largely about light. In the encounter of light and dark, of black and white, these pictures visualize an old dictum of the prophet Isaiah: "Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Both the photogravures shown in the first exhibition space and the older portraits collected in the second part illustrate that the draw of this mystical light is not just the stuff of old texts and dusty books. One must learn to see the light that shines through the cracks; look beyond the superficial. Look beyond. When one knows how to read light, how to read the signs, then each of these photographs will be lit up for ages. (Ralf Hanselle, Translation: Sondra Kitchen)

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© 15 Jan 2018 photography-now.com
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