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"Shafts"
L.A. Galerie Lothar AlbrechtDomstrasse 6 60311 Frankfurt GERMANY
T: + 49 – 69 – 288687 e-mail: September 11th – November 14th , 2015 |
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 Schacht 1 / Shaft 1, 2014, Leuchtkasten / Light Box, 100cm x 100cm and 40cm x 40cm © L.A.Galerie |
 Schacht 2 / Shaft 2, 2014, Leuchtkasten / Light Box, 100cm x 100cm and 40cm x 40cm © L.A.Galerie |
 Schacht 3 / Shaft 3, 2014, Leuchtkasten / Light Box, 100cm x 100cm and 40cm x 40cm © L.A.Galerie |
 Schacht 4, 2014, Leuchtkasten / Light Box, 80 x 150 x 11 cm © L.A.Galerie |
… Boberg’s seamless artifice is an end in itself, the work (…) doesn’t really lead the viewer anywhere. Once you enter his cul-de-sac, however, that blank wall becomes strangely compelling. New Yorker, 12 June 2006
Oliver Boberg on the Shafts series:
I got the idea for places characterized by so much darkness on the subway in Munich. I was sitting on a train lost in thought, when suddenly a flash of light came through some sort of window, gone again in the fraction of a second. Without actually having seen or recognized it, my inner eye had registered the place. It must have been an airshaft, because I clearly remember the incidence of daylight. I realized then that we as ordinary citizens have no real understanding of these kinds of non-places, even though of course we know that there are emergency shafts, supply shafts, light and air shafts in the underground train system.
(…) To be sure, these places are much more dramatic than anything I have done before. The first versions of “Shafts” even had the obligatory blue emergency lights outside the edges of the picture, but they made the places appear more staged. After I omitted them, the made-up shafts suddenly looked much more credible.
(…) Each ‘shaft’ has its own theme – there is the escape shaft, the light and air shaft and the emergency shaft. They all have the same structure, both in real and in the picture: With a square format, we are standing on the subway train tracks, as it were. In the lower fifth of the picture, the emergency escape route follows along the wall, almost in parallel to the lower frame (and in parallel to the tracks in actuality). At the center of the picture, the wall gives way to the respective theme. There are myriad possibilities of light falling in: from stairs, directly above across walls, over a tilted surface into darkness. When building and testing, I realized that while the light falls down from above into the dark, our eyes instinctively follow upwards, towards the light and out of the dark space. In every shaft there are similar features, kind of as an orientation: handrails, cables, and a light switch.
(…) Of course, as a viewer you hardly recognize anything in the light boxes at first, although you should see that the daylight areas are illuminated, or show a lighter white than the wall on which the boxes hang, for example. I therefore made sure for the light boxes to be such that the darker spots, i.e. about three quarters of a motif, have the same presence as a simple print. To savor this special quality really was the drive behind making light boxes instead of photo or inkjet prints; here, darkness can have a soft glow, and in turn provide a particular brilliance to the daylight. So, obviously, this is as much about darkness as about light. I like it when light ‘paints’ transitions and structures on surfaces. That’s why in all the motifs there is a lot of space left for light to do its painting, even in the dark areas. It is Time that holds the paintbrush here.
(Translation Simone Schede)
On the occasion of the start to the season at the Frankfurt galleries the exhibition on Saturday and Sunday, 12 and 13 September 2015 is open 11 to 18 clock.
Oliver Boberg on the Shafts series:
I got the idea for places characterized by so much darkness on the subway in Munich. I was sitting on a train lost in thought, when suddenly a flash of light came through some sort of window, gone again in the fraction of a second. Without actually having seen or recognized it, my inner eye had registered the place. It must have been an airshaft, because I clearly remember the incidence of daylight. I realized then that we as ordinary citizens have no real understanding of these kinds of non-places, even though of course we know that there are emergency shafts, supply shafts, light and air shafts in the underground train system.
(…) To be sure, these places are much more dramatic than anything I have done before. The first versions of “Shafts” even had the obligatory blue emergency lights outside the edges of the picture, but they made the places appear more staged. After I omitted them, the made-up shafts suddenly looked much more credible.
(…) Each ‘shaft’ has its own theme – there is the escape shaft, the light and air shaft and the emergency shaft. They all have the same structure, both in real and in the picture: With a square format, we are standing on the subway train tracks, as it were. In the lower fifth of the picture, the emergency escape route follows along the wall, almost in parallel to the lower frame (and in parallel to the tracks in actuality). At the center of the picture, the wall gives way to the respective theme. There are myriad possibilities of light falling in: from stairs, directly above across walls, over a tilted surface into darkness. When building and testing, I realized that while the light falls down from above into the dark, our eyes instinctively follow upwards, towards the light and out of the dark space. In every shaft there are similar features, kind of as an orientation: handrails, cables, and a light switch.
(…) Of course, as a viewer you hardly recognize anything in the light boxes at first, although you should see that the daylight areas are illuminated, or show a lighter white than the wall on which the boxes hang, for example. I therefore made sure for the light boxes to be such that the darker spots, i.e. about three quarters of a motif, have the same presence as a simple print. To savor this special quality really was the drive behind making light boxes instead of photo or inkjet prints; here, darkness can have a soft glow, and in turn provide a particular brilliance to the daylight. So, obviously, this is as much about darkness as about light. I like it when light ‘paints’ transitions and structures on surfaces. That’s why in all the motifs there is a lot of space left for light to do its painting, even in the dark areas. It is Time that holds the paintbrush here.
(Translation Simone Schede)
On the occasion of the start to the season at the Frankfurt galleries the exhibition on Saturday and Sunday, 12 and 13 September 2015 is open 11 to 18 clock.
opening :
Friday , September 11th, 2015, from 6 pm to 10 pm. The artist will be present.
mpefm
GERMANY art press release
Opening hours :
Tuesday through Friday 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
and by appointment
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