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| Long Time Staying Still by Wenzel Schurmann was on show at the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, 1998. |
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| Other articles by Nessa O'Mahony |
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| Long Time Staying Still |
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| The title of Wenzel Schurmann's first Irish exhibition, shown in the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios from late May to mid-June, cleverly encapsulates the sense of motionlessness contained in this extraordinary and sometimes disquieting piece of work. The exhibition consists of two installations, the first a series of nudes shot from different perspectives against different backdrops, the second a collection of photographs of marterl, the markers left by Germans at the scene of fatal accidents to commemorate the person they have lost. |
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| Schurmann's stated intention in his first installation, entitled Frauenkircherl, was to take the stereotypical images of woman portrayed on the front covers of news-stand magazines and recast them using strange new settings in order to force the spectator to revise his or her perception of how the female form is used (or abused) by modern photography. Schurmann chooses a variety of locations - the Hellfire Club in the Dublin Mountains, a marble quarry in Italy, an abattoir-like factory in Germany - grouping a series of prints together to create a news-stand format. |
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| In the first Hellfire Club study we see 24 images of a nude in yoga-like pose, face obscured by hair, motionless as the camera, and thus the viewer, comes ever closer. This shift in perspective allows us to take in more and more detail of the surroundings - the shadow cast through a window, the texture of the stone, the contours of the model's flesh. The effect is somewhat mesmerising, drawing us in further and further, forcing us to revise constantly our impression of what we are actually seeing. |
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| Schurmann uses this technique time and time again but unfortunately the repetition, rather than reinforcing his point, undermines it. Once the element of surprise is lost, the viewer becomes somewhat bored by the sameness of the imagery [the women always faceless, always posed in bizarre and painful-looking shapes]. While there is generally something to marvel at - the use of light, the extraordinary delineation of the rock contours in the Massa marble sequence for instance - we begin to feel that although Schurmann may have a point about the monotonous treatment of magazine cover-girls, he makes his point too well. |
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| When Schurmann deviates from the pattern by allowing us to see his model's face in the 'Ulrico's Factory' sequence, the impact is much more powerful. Once again we have the shift in perspective, the gradual approach to the model spread-eagled against the back wall of the empty warehouse, the light from the grilled windows throwing a grid-like shadow on the wall. But when we can see her face, can identify with her as a person who thinks and who is not just a faceless mannequin forced into different poses, our empathy is engaged and our interest heightened. We are prompted once again to analyse our reaction. This kind of provocation is lacking in some of the other sequences. |
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| The grouping technique is used far more effectively in the second installation, entitled Road Deaths, Southern Germany. The artist uses 36 different prints depicting the marterl, or markers, which are placed by relatives and friends of people who have died in road accidents at the place where they have died. The images are grouped together in such a way as to suggest a graveyard, but here there is none of the uniformity or sameness of the headstone. Each image is very different, representing a unique response to the individual who has died and telling us much about the person who has chosen to commemorate them. |
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| The marterl range from wooden crosses carrying simple black-laced remembrances to more sophisticated wrought iron pieces. Perhaps the most powerful image is of a tiny wooden cross set beside, and dwarfed by, an enormous tree. In the background, one house is framed against the horizon. We are left to imagine the relationship between each element in the picture, but we clearly get a sense of one more death out of thousands. The overall effect is extremely poignant, forcing us to recognise the tragedy and loss that is so often hidden by road accident statistics. Each marker represents a human life, a lover, parent, child, sibling, who can never be replaced. |
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| Nessa O'Mahony |
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