Exhibition

©Sigune Hamann

SIGUNE HAMANN
A Very Short Space of Time Through Very Short Times of Space

The Gallery of Photography is presenting a specially-commissioned installation and other new works by the London-based artist, Sigune Hamann. Hamann’s work operates in the space between the still and moving image, and employs both old and new media. Her large-scale photographic installation in the window of the Gallery uses the principle behind the 19th-century diorama to create transitional, painterly imagery changing with the levels of interior and exterior light.

The distinctive imagery of Hamann’s film-strips is captured by exposing an entire length of 35mm film in one continuous rewinding movement. This action produces an expansive panoramic image where moving elements such as people tend to register more clearly than static backgrounds, which dissolve into ambiguity. The imagery operates at a high level of abstraction: it has a poetic, calligraphic quality that reveals the hidden dynamics behind everyday appearances.

In addition to several film-strip projects the exhibition includes a series of photographs and three video works that explore the tensions between ‘home’ and ‘homeland’ in ways both autobiographical and conceptual. In assmannshausen, a two-monitor video made during a return journey to Hamann’s native Germany, the dislocation that characterises the emigrant’s experience is deftly inscribed into the very structure and framing of the work.

In Heimlich, a meditative series of reflection photographs, the artist captures a shimmering image world that is simultaneously strange and familiar and suggests both dream and memory.

A limited-edition Artist’s Book accompanies the exhibition. It includes a critical introduction to the work by Sean Rainbird, Director, Stadtsgalerie Stuttgart. Published by the Gallery of Photography, it is available at a special exhibition price of €10.

With thanks to: The Arts Council, University of the Arts, London, the Goethe Institute and Project Arts Centre for their support.

For further information, press scans or to interview the artist, please contact: Tanya Kiang, Gallery of Photography 353-1-6714654, tanya@galleryofphotography.ie