THE ULTIMATE
[LOVE FOR TECHNOLOGIES OF LOATHING]
Photographic object (C-prints hand-stitched on raw canvas with red thread), 220 cm x 145 cm)
2017, 2023-2024
PERFORMATIVE SCANOGRAPHIES, C-PRINTS, PHOTOGRAPHIC OBJECTS
In 2017, amidst what felt like a never-ending avalanche of personal battles, I made the images for THE ULTIMATE. Alone, unclothed, I produced a series of performative scanographs in of my old flatbed scanner. I put it up vertically on my desk, and wrote a script on my computer to automate the scanning and saving process, allowing me to stay immersed in my poses. Each image, a product of up to 30 minutes of still performance, captured not just a pose but the transformation of the pornographic gesture towards a place more authentic, between sweaty skin and muscle fatigue. The work remained dormant, only to resurface in an exhibition at Helmaus Zürich as their first physical manifestation in early 2024. I transferred the digital scans onto color negative film to print them in the darkroom.
Throughout the curation process before the show, I found myself referring to these images as die Frau/diese Frau (this woman) instead of myself. It's as if I was observing a separate entity, detached.
These works are peripheral in some way. They embody my concerns with iteration and reappropriation in the photographic.
Laboratory view, Berlin, December 2023
Analog Contact Prints
Original performative scanographies from 2017
/legs and /neck, installation view
Myself between other selves of mine, photographed by Lucas Hagin, opening at Helmhaus Zürich, 26.01.2024