Opportunity Views 2010

Opportunity Views 2010
Groundimages of Mars | as yet 6-part photoseries | limited edition 24 | Lambda-exposure on Kodak-Silverpaper | framed under glas | each 61 x 61 cm | Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. © artwork: jk

Fig. 1-4: 4 Images Opportunity Views from a series of 6 | Fig. 5: Floorsculpture NADIR 2010 | Ensemble with Opportunity Views | Swedish Gabbro | polished to matt | 81 x 81 x 7 cm

Surface topographies, ground and location structures on planets and celestial bodies are the focus of my graphic-photographic work in 2009/2010. The work, which is still essentially sculptural in nature, is characterized by an interdisciplinary and conceptual openness. In the process, concepts of place, space and perspective are being dissolved. Photographs of previously unknown terrains (areas of interest, terrain, landscapes) on planets and celestial bodies of the solar system form the basis of these new, serial terrain images.

Images of the planet Mars taken by robots are sent to us on Earth in high quality and resolution. The image information is initially used for scientific purposes, as is the image material from the “Opportunity Views 2009/2010” series. The respective position of the camera-equipped vehicle cannot be captured photographically. Within the explored environment, a blind spot remains in the center of the image.

In a paradigmatic way, the photographic series “martian landscapes” also expresses the longing for the unknown or unreachable place is also expressed in the “martian landscapes” series of photographs. In the 21st century, this “search for a new territory”, outside the earth, is set against the backdrop of complex socio-ecological change. A search that arises from questions about the continued existence of human existence. The search for “U-topos” - the ideal, perfect place, questions about our human utopias, our position and state of mind in the cosmic whole - have always touched people and filled art. It is those aspects of finding, transforming and artistically evaluating scientific research that bring these enraptured images of places into the context of my work.