Shadows of Distant Truth
- Jens Sundheim-

KIKA gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition of Dortmund based German artist Jens Sundheim.
In his first solo exhibition in Japan, Sundheim presents photographic work made without camera.
The first series are his latest work of cyanotypes. Cyanotype is one of the oldest photographic processes, invented 1842 by astronomer Sir John Herschel and intensively used by British botanist Anna Atkins who became a photo pioneer (and published world’s first photo book). While Anna Atkins examined the natural world, Sundheim concentrates his visual research on objects from the cultural sphere.
The second series »Variations on Strindberg« are both direct exposures on photo paper and prints from 4x5" negatives, following the ideas of Swedish artist August Strindberg who in the 1890s mistrusted any photographic devices and lenses (even the human eye), as they bend and distort light, in their capability to depict reality.
Interestingly, photogram style work seems the most direct way to create pictorial representations of reality. However, the resulting images often seem strangely detached from it.
One might feel reminded of Greek philosopher Plato and his famous Allegory of the Cave. Maybe we have no idea yet of how the world really looks like, and all we see are just shadows of a distant truth.