THOMAS RUFF – NEW WORK
2014-06-23For the current exhibition of two photographic series, Thomas Ruff has once again adopted new techniques: on the one hand, digitally produced colour photograms, and on the other, digitally processed vintage photographs with the aesthetic appearance of negatives.
Photograms are black and white photographic images created by placing objects directly onto light-sensitive material and exposing it to light, resulting in the objects being rendered as forms in light and shadow. It is actually an old technique, used by such notable artists as Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray and Arthur Siegel, for instance, and was especially popular at the Bauhaus in the 1920s.
Thomas Ruff now builds these objects digitally using a 3D software programme, which allows him to manipulate and arrange them entirely according to his own aesthetic criteria and, above all, in colour. Fully dedicated to the innovative potential of digital image processing, he conveys a new visual aesthetic of sumptuously colourful surfaces – compositionally freewheeling images using highly sophisticated, cutting-edge technology.
Another of Thomas Ruff’s interests is the possibility of inverting images – in other words, producing negatives of them. For this, he uses existing historical images and negatives. This creates an entirely different effect, expressing an emphasis and concentration on compositional aspects. The new group of works he has been creating since this year, titled Negatives, is represented in our exhibition by the series neg◊lal, which is being shown to the public for the very first time. For this series, Ruff digitally reworked old technical shots of aeronautic industry prototypes being tested in the wind canal, manipulating light and shadow and altering the original sepia tone to transform them into shimmering blue images with an altogether unfamiliar and distinctive aesthetic.
Opposite – phg.03_II, 2014
Exhibition runs through to August 2nd, 2014
Mai 36 Galerie
Rämistrasse 37
CH-8001 Zurich
Switzerland
