Lot 35: MIKLOS GAÁL (b.1974 Finnish)

MIKLOS GAÁL (b.1974 Finnish)
Demonstration Day, 2003
chromogenic print
signed, titled, dated and numbered '5/5' in ink on backing board
54 x 42½in. (137 x 108cm.)

Miklos Gaál -- Imitation of Life: Photographs 1999-2003, Kunstverein Göttingen, 2004, p.43 (fig.I); The Helsinki School: Photography by TaiK, Hatje Cantz, 2005, p.122 (fig.C).

I am interested in showing something familiar in a new, unfamiliar, even uncanny way.

MIKLOS GAÁL, 2005

DISTINCTIVELY NORDIC
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Artist's Resale Right ("droit de Suite"). If the Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer also agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
This work is number 5 from the sold-out edition of 5 + 2 AP.

In his photographs, Gaál explores a new way of seeing by manipulating the rules of perspective without the use of digital processes. Gaál swivels the film plate of his large-format camera to create a shallow, diagonal depth of field and blurred zones that characterise his photographs. The resulting images -- inhabited by toy-sized people -- acquire a strange spatial atmosphere and a distorted sense of proportion. The focused and out-of-focus areas do not indicate the spatial relationship between foreground and background. Thus, the viewer's sense of perspective is easily lost.

In Demonstration Day, Gaál photographs a Helsinki demonstration against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and transforms this politically charged public event into a perfectly arranged bird's-eye view of a miniature world. The viewer is distanced from the reality of the actual event. A demonstration is an ideal subject for Gaál who revels in using his well-developed photographic technique to accentuate an already staged reality.

Gaál received his MA in Photography from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and is working on another post-graduate degree at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. His works have been shown internationally, including the Helsinki School travelling exhibitions, and are held in private, institutional and corporate collections, including Kunsthalle in Emden, Germany; FNAC, France; DZ Bank, Germany; Calder Foundation, New York; and Microsoft Collection, Seattle. He recently was included in the publication reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow (Ewing, et al., Thames & Hudson, 2005). He lives and works in Helsinki and Amsterdam.