BERLIN ART WEEK 2014 | SEHNSUCHT 02 AT POSITIONS BERLIN

BERLIN ART WEEK 2014

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SEHNSUCHT 02 AT POSITIONS BERLIN 

PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE | 10 ARTISTAS QUE DEMUESTRAN POR QUÈ LAS POLAROIDS NO TIENEN EDAD

10 ARTISTAS QUE DEMUESTRAN POR QUÈ LAS POLAROIDS NO TIENEN EDAD

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Artistas veteranos y nuevas promesas, todos unidos por el uso de las instantáneas

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IMPOSSIBLE 8x10 OF DEBORAH

UPCOMMING EXHIBITIONS

UPCOMMING EXHIBITIONS

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11.11.2014 / 5. Benefit Art Vendue at KPM Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur in collaboration with the Berlinische Museum Of Temporary Art - Berlin (Ger)    

30.10. - 08.11. 2014 / 5. Benefit Art Vendue Pre-Exhibition - collective exhibition at Mianki Gallery - Berlin (Ger)    

18.09. - 21.09. 2014 / Art Week Berlin - Positions Berlin Art Fair - Berlin (Ger)  

15.09. - 21.09. 2014 / Photokina 2014 - Presenting 8x10 at the Impossible Project Stand - Cologne (Ger) 

HELIO PRESS | OLIVER BLOHM: SEHNSUCHT ANALOG

Oliver Blohm: Sehnsucht Analog

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Die tiefe Schwärze in den Fotografien von Oliver Blohm hat mich sofort angezogen. Ich finde, sie gibt seinen Bildern eine subtile Kraft.    

Und natürlich ist sein analoger Prozess mit all seinen Spuren, Unschärfen und Zufällen ein besonderes Beispiel für ein künstlerisches Schaffen mit handwerklichen Mitteln. Großformatige Polaroids, Arbeit mit der Mikrowelle und ähnliches sind nur einige Beispiele für Olivers große Experimentierfreude. Die Ergebnisse sprechen für sich!    

Wir hatten das große Vergnügen eines seiner Motive zu drucken, welches dann auf der 5. Benefiz-Kunstauktion zu Gunsten der Telefonseelsorge Berlin versteigert wird. Vorher werden Olivers Werke und die vieler anderer Künstler in der mianki.Gallery ausgestellt. Telefonseelsorge Auktion  

Das Motiv heißt „Sehnsucht 02“ und wurde in einer Auflage von 3 Stück auf Büttenpapier im Format 40×50 cm gedruckt. Ein wortwörtlich beeindruckendes Portrait!

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SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | MAKING WAVES

MAKING WAVES

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A YOUNG ARTIST CREATES RIVETING PORTRAITS BY MICROWAVING FILM 

Here's What Happens When You Put Instant Film in a Microwave. - A German photographer made a name for himself by treating his photos like last night's leftovers.    

Oliver Blohm and a friend were snapping instant photos at a Berlin beer garden when they had an idea. What if they burned the photos with lighters as they developed? Their experiment wasn’t entirely frivolous, though they had consumed a good amount of Berliner Weisse. They knew the chemistry behind photography and that applying heat would alter the development process. Sure enough, the lighters created unique textures and spots on the photos and left them curious.    

“This is how Oliver works,” says his friend from the beer garden, Michael Fischer. “First he has a spark in his mind and one or two months later he has this great idea.”  

The trick was protecting the images from getting too hot and bursting into flames, which Blohm accomplished by inserting them between thick paper and a layer of glass. The resulting prints were beautifully discolored and warped. “It’s about the destruction,” Blohm says. “I wanted to play more and more with the texture, with the burns, with the flares.”
“This is how Oliver works,” says his friend from the beer garden, Michael Fischer. “First he has a spark in his mind and one or two months later he has this great idea.”  

“There’s a history of people manipulating instant prints,” says Brenda Bernier, chief conservator at Harvard’s Weissman Preservation Center. Products like those sold by Polaroid and The Impossible Project are easy to manipulate because they contain complex layers of dyes and chemicals. “They are a technological marvel,” she says. “It’s essentially it’s own dark room.”  

The science behind Blohm’s method is simple, according to Philip Sadler, director of the Science Education Department at Harvard. “Whenever you speed things up, things become uneven,” he says. “You get different colors, you get burns, discoloration.”  

James Foley, who worked at Polaroid as a chemist during the heyday of instant film, says they designed the material inside the film to react at a certain time. “By heating this up,” he says, “you could release things before all of the photographic chemistry was done,” resulting in those artistic flaws.  

Earlier this year, Blohm went pro with his microwave photos. He hired models, who sat there as he dashed over to the microwave and worked his magic. Blohm titled the series “Hatzfrass,” his German translation for “fast food.” When The Impossible Project opened a store in Berlin, they invited him to exhibit the series. He even brought a microwave so he could nuke other people’s photos. Since then, “Hatzfrass” has gained the attention of bloggers. Some fans have even sent him their own microwaved images. Still, amateur photographers might want to play it safe. “It’s not gonna go nuclear,” says Ken Foster, a bioengineering professor at the University of Pennsylvania, “but you might need to have a fire extinguisher handy.”

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