January 26–March 10
Michael Pfisterer’s photographs display a fascination with structure, investigating photography’s capacity to serve as a reproductive medium. His subjects extend from the micro to the macro dimension—molecules, scientific experiments, distant galaxies—and have been divested of any claim to reality: They are restrained, reduced images, verging on the symbolic. Here, Pfisterer exhibits four new large-format photographs from the series “Erster Tag (Arbeitssituation)” (First Day [Labor Situation]), 2006–2007, which depict a table on which various piles of paper have been arranged. Most sheets are blank; a few contain blots or printed numbers. One observes many layered surfaces and fine nuances of tone, ranging from grayish white to dirty beige: Everything seems to have been used but is tidily arranged. The occasion for these arrangements is never revealed, but the hypnotic presence of the details and the loose rectangular arrangements inspire the imagination. Each is photographed from above; the images lose their depth, an optical trick further emphasized by the artist’s use of lighting. The combination of despatialization and concentrated representational presence creates a rather puzzling whole, and Pfisterer introduces another level of meaning with the vague symbols scattered across some pages: Are they merely spots, or are they drawings? On closer observation, a constellation of dots has been turned ninety degrees on a second sheet and placed next to different objects. Is this coincidence or is it deliberate? Are we seeing or interpreting? Pfisterer remains ambivalent. These photographs are hermetic still lifes that continually force us to make guesses but provide no conclusive answers.
Text: Jens Asthoff
Translated from German by Jane Brodie.
http://www.artforum.com/picks/section=de#picks12809


Michael Pfisterer
*1976 in Kirchheim unter Teck, lebt in Hamburg

Preise/Stipendien
2000 Förderpreis des Freundeskreises der HfBK Hamburg2001
2000 Anerkennung »Europäischer Architekturfotografie-Preis 2001«
2002 Auszeichnung »Peter Keetman Preis«
2002 Karl H. Ditze-Preis der Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg
2003 Anerkennung »Europäischer Architekturfotografie-Preis 2003«
2004 Artist-in Residence von »ORTE« Architekturnetzwerk Niederösterreich
2007 Arbeitsstipendium der Freien- und Hansestadt Hamburg

Gruppen (G)- und Einzelausstellungen(E) / *mit Katalog

2007 artfinder Galerie (E)
2007 Stipendiaten Hamburg/Vorauswahl, Kunsthaus (G)
2006 minimal quotation, artfinder Galerie, Hamburg (G)
2005 Dan Devening Projects, Chicago, USA (G)
2005 Recontre Internationales de la Fotografie Arles, France (G)
2005 Viennafair (Messe), artfinder Galerie, Wien (G)
2004 «Blank Grids« artfinder Galerie, Hamburg (E)
2004 »Neues aus den Sammlungen Lafrenz u. Reinking«, Weserburg Museum Bremen (G)
2004 »...and in between«, Galerie Grita Insam / Wien (G),
2004 »ORTE« Architekturnetzwerk Niederösterreich, (G)
2004 Kunsthaus Brünn (G)
2003 »Europäischer Architekturfotografie-Preis 2003«, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (G*)
2003 »International Festival of Digital Images 2003«, Prag (G*)
2002 »Peter Keetman Preis«, Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg, Katalog (G)
2002 »Landschaftsblicke«, artfinder Projektraum, Hamburg (G)
2002 Auswahl »Saar Ferngas Förderpreis Junge Kunst«, Wilhelm-Kack-Museum, Ludwigshafen und Kunstverein Trier Junge Kunst, (G*)
2002 »There is a Place«, Kaispeicher A, Hamburg (G)
2002 »Module«, artfinder Projektraum, Hamburg, (E*)
2001 »Kunst in der Börse«, Hamburg, (G*)
2001 »Europäischer Architekturfotografie-Preis«, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, (G*)
2001 Sammlung Gerling, Köln
2000 m4«, Hamburg (G),
2000 »Digitale Bilderwelten«, Recklinghausen, (G*)
1998 Kunstverein »Villa Streccius«, Landau (G)
1998 Kunst-Museum Ahlen (G)
1998 Dortmunder Kunstverein (G)
1998 Galerie Pforzheim, (E*)