Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

»Tohu va Bohu is a slippery and evasive phrase, found in the book of Genesis 1:2. Independently, Tohu can be translated as Formless and Bohu as Void or Empty, however together it can be understood as chaos, used to describe the world before God created light and order. Bohu is never used without Tohu and in turn the collective translation as ‘chaos’ is muddled into a murky Chaos/Formless/Void. It describes an anti time and place, an empty and desolate non-landscape. It hints at something barbaric and fragmented, to a time before light, order and civilized consciousness. It is from this knotted framework that this work is positioned, becoming an exploration for the archaic, within the perfect surface ‘screen’ of commodity and technology culture. Every element of the images in the piece has been meticulously constructed, adopting the tropes of the commercial aesthetic to critique the commercial itself. The subjects are artificially lit, abstracted bodies are positioned just so, becoming equally as object as the consumer goods. Furthermore, the images are highly edited in post production, leaving no space for error or imperfection. The images exemplify the surface, the black void of the ink-jet simultaneously seducing, and yet offering nothing in return.I am interested how basic tendencies such as desire, violence, vulnerability or emptiness can and do manifest themselves when commodity and mass communication envelops so many aspects of daily life. It is the search for the human within the synthetic; beneath the glistening plastic and liquid surface of the digital and product placement, a visceral humanity simmers.« Rebecca Scheinberg is an Australian-born artist, currently residing in London. Scheinberg’s  work has been shown internationally and was presented at the SPBH 89+ Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery, Night Contact Multimedia and Photography Festival and the Pingyao International Photofestival in China. Her graduate piece Tohu va Bohu (2014) was awarded the Hotshoe Portfolio Award, Flowers Gallery Award, Paul Smith Award and the Michael Wilson Award. Her work has recently been selected for The Telegraph: The Graduates, Wallpaper* Magazine Graduate Directory, the Art Catlin Guide 2015, British Journal of Photography’s Ones to Watch 2015 & the Duesseldorf Portfolio Review Metro Imaging Award.To view more of Rebecca's work, please visit her website.