July 31, 2010

Albrecht Schäfer

(1967, Stuttgart, Duitsland)

"Fenstertuch #1", 2007, plexiglass, mdf, size variable

"Wohnzimmerlampe" 2007, standing light, light bulb

Albrecht Schäfer shows works in which light plays a central role as shadow, dusk or darkness as well as the modification and complexity, which an image or object gains in correspondence with a given situation of lighting. This is the subject matter of a series of photographs, as well as of his video installation "The Sunset", consisting of a single-shot video, an hour in length, and of a black-and-white photograph. The film documents the view from Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, starting at daylight and ending in the dark. Seen by daylight, the well-known sparkling night-scape of Los Angeles, reveals itself as a rather dull and grey expanse. Only at nightfall it turns into the famous „L.A. Grid”. The photograph shows the facades of buildings at the Sunset Boulevard covered with layers of advertisement posters.