Lot 95: ANDREAS GEFELLER

Poles 07 from Japan
Signed, titled, dated and numbered in ink on the reverse of the flush-mount. One from an edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs.

150 x 150 cm (59 x 59 in).

Inkjet print.

2010

M. Kikuta, ed., European Eyes on Japan | Japan Today, vol. 12, 2010, p. 11; Andreas Gefeller: The Japan Series, Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2011, p. 35

Private Collection, Europe

The Japan series (2010) is the latest series by Andreas Gefeller,
following Supervisions (2002–09). It originated in the project
‘European Eyes on Japan’, for which European photographers are
invited annually to work in this Far Eastern country.
The series focus is on electricity poles. Gefeller photographs
electricity posts in at least two single upward views from a
perpendicular position. In the subsequent digital assemblage the
pole disappears and innumerable cables and electricity transformers
are converted into an autonomous and abstract composition that
spreads in front of a monochrome background. The absence of
points of reference and orientation opens up a new perspective on
familiar situations. Thus, the poles transcend their original context
in order to awaken associations of underground railway plans,
autoroute intersections or night photographs of a city’s pulsating
traffic arteries. Correspondences to drawing-related concepts such
as calligraphy are not merely coincidental, but are supported by the
artist’s choice of the printing technique and paper. Gefeller’s most
recent photo works have become increasingly formal and structural,
attesting to striking pictorial qualities. More than ever, he engages in
the field of tension between nature and urbanity, reality and fiction
as well as order and chaos.