Dorothée Nilsson Gallery | Berlin
26. September 2018
Apparent Magnitude
Johan Österholm
Not yet Titled | Johan Österholm
Johan Österholms Arbeit präsentiert sich erstmalig mit einer Einzelausstellung in Deutschland. Sie führt frühere und neue Werke zusammen, die aus verschiedenen Perspektiven die Thematik der Lichtverschmutzung in den Blick nehmen. Seit vielen Jahren arbeitet der Fotograf Österholm über das zentrale und doch am wenigsten greifbare Element seines Mediums: das Licht. Sein Werk vereint astronomische Naturbeobachtungen und Archivrecherchen, experimentelle fotografische Prozesse und durchaus auch politische Pointen.
Die Ausstellung umfasst experimentelle Arbeiten, die im Studio entstanden sind, fotografische Landschaften und skulpturale Objekte. Österholm interessiert sich in ihnen nicht nur für das Licht als Naturelement, sondern erinnert ebenso an die politischen Kämpfe um Straßenbeleuchtung und Kontrolle in der Stadt.
Zeitgleich werden in der Ausstellung Back to the Future im C/O Berlin auch frühere Projekte des Künstlers zu sehen sein, sodass das breite Spektrum seiner Arbeit an den dunklen Seiten des Lichts sichtbar wird.
Johan Österholm (*1983 in Borås/Schweden) lebt und arbeitet in Stockholm. 2016 schloss er mit MFA die Malmö Art Academy ab. Seine Arbeiten, entstanden in so unterschiedlichen Medien wie Fotografie, Video, Skulptur und Installation, waren und sind vielfach in Solo- und Gruppenausstellungen präsent, so etwa im C/O Berlin, dem Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, dem Copenhagen Photo Festival oder dem FOAM Amsterdam.
Apparent Magnitude is the first solo exhibition of works by Swedish artist Johan Österholm at the Dorothée Nilsson Gallery. As part of the European Month of Photography, it brings together earlier and new works that look at the topic of light pollution from different perspectives.
For many years the photographer Österholm has been working on the central yet least tangible element of his medium: light. His work combines astronomical observation and archival research, experimental photographic processes and sometimes political punchlines.
The three-part series Some Moonwalks (2017), for example, was created on the Isle of Sark in the English Channel. The island is considered a region with a natural, extremely dark night. On his nocturnal walks across the island, where the human eye can hardly see anything, Österholm’s camera was able to visualize the pale landscapes drawn by the clear moonlight on the island.
In recent works such as Concealer (2018), the perspective is reversed. It is not the essence of pure moonlight, but the dim light of urban street lamps that becomes the subject and artistic material.
The artist used it to examine old astronomical negatives from observatories, creating fascinatingly complex, black and white composite images. In Antique Skies and Untitled Lantern Pieces (both 2018) Österholm used a primitive method of early photography. For hours he exposed an astronomical yearbook and the glass pane of a street lamp with the negatives of those constellations that the light smog of the 20th century made invisible.
In Apparent Magnitude, however, Österholm also addresses the historical-political implications of his work on light more openly than before. Lantern Smashers (2018) interprets the streetlight as a political symbol of control. In the 19th century, newly erected lanterns were sometimes demonstratively destroyed. Österholm’s pictures, with tongue-in- cheek humour, interpret today’s vandalism or decay as a memory of those struggles for darkness in the city.
The works in Apparent Magnitude thus also reveal new aspects in Österholm’s work. In connection with earlier projects, which will be on show at the same time in the exhibition Back to the Future at the C/O Berlin as part of the European Month of Photography, the broad spectrum of his work on the dark shades of light becomes evident.
Johan Österholm (*1983 in Borås/Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm. In 2016 he completed the Malmö Art Academy with MFA. His works, created in such diverse media as photography, video, sculpture and installation, have been and are frequently present in solo and group exhibitions, for example at the C/O Berlin, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, the Copenhagen Photo Festival or the FOAM Amsterdam.
(Text: Dorothée Nilsson Gallery)