GINA ZACHARIAS
HESITATING SILENCE
HESITATING SILENCE “A German philosopher once stated that the essence of a work of art is in its silent being, because only when silent its significant meaning can articulate its greater understanding.”
Taking a look at the Danish artist Gina Zacharias’ (b. 1975) photography from the series Hesitating Silence, 2009 remarkable resemblances to the above particular statement occur. But far from offering an exhaustive description of Gina Zacharias’ work, this observation merely constitutes a point of departure, a basis. Thus the perception of the photography as fact and the perception of the photography as image are not simply two parallel ways of perceiving, between which the observer may feel free to choose. They are inextricably interwoven, and the method of interlacing can be seen as allegories of psychological and mental spaces, albeit of a very indeterminate character, which instigates new realisations and stories. In Hesitating Silence, Gina Zacharias endows every single image with a new habitat and a new life in which she appropriates and modifies them, inscribing them into new contexts, aesthetic and reflexive contexts. By looking at the image with the young girl standing slightly hidden behind a curtain an obvious concern reaches the observer. But suddenly one realizes the red painted lips and nails and the flashing red dress, which contradict a young innocence. And compared to the illuminated buck in the plain and rather outdated gymnasium-look-a-like, the story of the girl suddenly transforms to serious contextualisation.
Hesitating Silence is with its specific installation to be regarded as a story where the moment a shutter opens and closes, a fiction is created. Gina Zacharias’ photographs may be rooted in what we understand to be verifiably real, but Hesitating Silence translates the reality within variable semiotic contexts. Its specific installation somehow demands that the images co-exist and express visual access, containing an inseparable and yet distinguishable social subject-matter that demonstrates modern apophthegm. Just take a close look at the images of the landscapes, which in their cruel natural harshness elude a common natural beauty in its abrupt representation. But at that very second one gets concerned about the distinct natural appearance it is striking how beautiful and captivating nature appears and how nature’s bland colour palette strikes against the bliss of the sparkling curtain captured at a possible dance establishment. Leaving the viewer with a possible stronger fear against the unnatural appearance i.e. the coloured curtain. Also despite the appearance of a topographic fact, the landscapes create abstractions, two-dimensional surfaces containing selective and incomplete information as presented by Gina Zacharias. The frame, seemingly neutral, encloses visual contradictions by associating disparate subjects. Lines within the landscape isolate, identify, and demarcate visual access as well as contain or define specific attitude. And situating these images of landscape in-between e.g. the coloured curtain, the landscape becomes the image of ‘what lies behind’. Gina Zacharias’ incomparable ability to combine time, space, light and place into a narrative involves the spectator, and one does not seem to withdraw or be allowed to be withdrawn into a universe of escapism – rather her hesitating images create visions of everydaylife that hold our attention with silent tones.
Cecilie Bepler - Copenhagen
GINA ZACHARIAS
HESITATING SILENCE
Chief Curator Joint Curator Joint Curator
Galvin Harrison Paolo Sturiale Robert Klun
Exhibition Text Document Graphic Proof - text editing
Cecilie Bepler Galvin Harrison Sandy Thornland
Sturiale Contemporary Arts
:
Venice / Ljubljana / Abu Dhabi
http://sturiale.it/ http://sturialeprojects.tumblr.com/
All images are the sole copyright of Gina Zacharias, courtesy of Sturiale Contemporary Arts 2015