César Martins
Artist Feature
Every week an artist is featured whose single image was published by Der Greif. The Feature shows the image in the original context of the series.
Sara-Lena Maierhofer - Dear Clark, – Portrait of a Con Man
Mar 05, 2014
Christian Karl, a bit ordinary, hardly impressive. The names he designed for himself were more beautiful, more resonant: Christopher Crowe, Clark Rockefeller. He created his own reality, and everyone fell for it. With each new name, he left his previous life behind as though it had never existed. Almost without a trace. As a time traveller moves between different centuries, a con man like Clark Rockefeller travels between various identities and lives, at home only in permanent transformation. Trying to capture him in his many disguises is a rather hopeless endeavour. After several attempts to trap his persona, I realized I had to beat him with his own weapons. Accordingly, I encircled the phenomenon of the con man on different levels: his appearance, his conventions, criminal profile and pathologies. Above all, I had to become accustomed to experimenting with deception myself, if I wanted my research to be successful – to the point where reality and speculation merged, and where facts seemed as unknown and unknowable as fictions.
Artist Blog
The blog of Der Greif is written entirely by the artists who have been invited to doing an Artist-Feature. Every week, we have a different author.
Published in:
»Der Greif #7«
Arrange and Rearrange
Mar 11, 2014 - Sara-Lena Maierhofer
When I’m working on a new project my place looks like a mixture between the office of a private detective and the room of a fanatic teenage fan. The walls are covered with images in various sizes, newspaper cuttings and written notes, grouped together in different arrangements. I guess I structure my thoughts this way, by spreading them out on the wall. With the work "Dear Clark," I decided to transport this organized chaos into the exhibition (you can find installation views here: feldbuschwiesner.de) (more…)
The State of Things
Mar 07, 2014 - Sara-Lena Maierhofer
I like to see photography in analogy to noise. Sound is the product of the collision of two materials, as well as a photograph is the result of the coming together of two materials: light hits a photosensitive material. The product of this encounter is the image. A good deal of the overcome concept of photography as an objective entity of accurate depiction and realism is founded on this short acquaintance with reality. Because of its mechanical character and the illusion of the absence of any human influence during the exposure of an image, photography was seen as an imprint of nature. (more…)
Me and my Models
Mar 06, 2014 - Sara-Lena Maierhofer
When people are asked why they picked photography as their favourite subject a lot of them actually say: “Because I can’t paint.” Me too. I still paint like a 9-year old. But another aspect was equally important: I love people. Looking at them, wondering where they are going, what they will have for dinner and how their lives look like. With a camera they allow me to accompany them, listen to their stories and sit at their kitchen table. Be a part of their life for a moment. Photographing people is a mixed bag of emotions, though. You feel like you take something more, not just a photograph. Jan Hoek, the photographer I’d like to introduce to you, says "I believe there is always a certain degree of ethics involved in photography. It is almost impossible to take photographs of people without consciously, or unconsciously, crossing boundaries and with things happening that you don't want or expect. I feel this is often covered up in photography, while I would like to show it … " (more…)