Leon Kirchlechner : Nowhere - (limitiert, numb.: No. 383 of 800)
Der Greif / dienacht Publishing, 2013, 1. Aufl./ 800 Ex., 64 pages, m. Abb. / illustr., 21,5 x 29,5 cm, ill. OLeinen / Hardcover (cloth) (9783981511963) - / (Sehr gut erhalten! / in very good condition)
With no horizon, one’s view into the distance is impeded. Scanning, searching, one’s gaze comes to a standstill in Leon Kirchlechner’s photographs. The eye may slow, but it doesn’t find repose. The peace is not contemplative: it is restless. The restricted field of view has a narrowing effect. It makes the room strangely dislocated, denies me the geographical coordinates that would give me a feeling of safety. And so, even as the onlooker, I remain dislocated in the usually centrically, often symmetrically composed images. I can’t make sense of this centrality. Nor is it reassuring. Although it gives me pause, it doesn’t offer anything for me to grasp. It’s not the enjoyable, thought-provoking stillness that many works of art inspire. Rather, it’s an oppressive, constricting stillness, one that causes alarm. - 'I was immediately enthralled by what I saw,' explains Leon Kirchlechner. 'An inky black hole opened up suddenly and incomprehensibly in the cold, bare ground. It appeared to swallow the light. The unstructured, almost two-dimensional black was deceptive; the thought of falling into it made me shudder. How deep was it? What was in it? Was there anything? Or nothing? I expected something. I suspected something. I knew that nothing would happen and yet I was as if hypnotised. Filled with an illusory fear I stood still – and looked at what I could not see.'