Sharon Lockhart
dal 10/4/2008 al 14/6/2008
Segnalato da
10/4/2008
Sharon Lockhart
Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg
The films and photography of Sharon Lockhart are usually based on time-consuming and labor-intensive research. The examination of the relation between the fine arts and the film, between artificially staged and putatively authentic reproductions of reality is a constant in her work. Against this background, her choice of sculptures by Duane Hanson as subjects, with which she deals in several photographic works, becomes comprehensible as they meet her interest in the simulation of reality.
The films and photography of Sharon Lockhart, who was born in 1964 in Norwood, Massachusetts and now lives in Los Angeles, are usually based on time-consuming and labor-intensive research. Her early works reveal a connection to her neighborhood Hollywood by references to film classics and cinematic photographs. ”Audition“ (1994), a series of photographs in which boys and girls re-enact a scene of Francois Truffaut’s „L’argent de poche“ (pocket money) of 1975, classes among her best-known pictures of that time which is also shown in the Hamburg exhibition. The photographs that appear like stills of a film create an irritating contradiction between the age of the actors and the scenes they re-enact. This contradiction is characteristic for Sharon Lockhart’s work, as she prevalently portrays children or teenagers on the brink of adulthood. She is interested in the manifestation of cultural representation – not only in different phases of life but as well in different geographic regions and contexts. Thus, for the realization of some of her projects, she spent several month in Japan and Brasil.
The examination of the relation between the fine arts and the film, between artificially staged and putatively authentic reproductions of reality is a constant in Sharon Lockhart’s work. Against this background, her choice of sculptures by Duane Hanson as subjects, with which she deals in several photographic works, becomes comprehensible as they meet her interest in the simulation of reality. Sharon Lockhart deliberately uses dramatic effects that contrast with the rational and conceptual character of her work. Both analytic distance and subjective empathy determine the atmospheres and situations in her films and photographs. Her works have already been shown in large single exhibitions at museums in Minneapolis, Chicago, Rotterdam, and Zurich as well as at internationally renowned festivals in New York, Berlin, Vienna, and Rio de Janeiro. Kunstverein Hamburg presents the hitherto most comprehensive show of her oeuvre.
photos: Sharon Lockhart, Lunch Break Installation, "Duane Hanson: Sculptures of Life", 14 December 2002 - 23 February 2003, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2003 (detail), courtesy neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Gladstone Gallery, New York and Blum & Poe, L.A.
For further information or image material please contact
Kunstverein in Hamburg, Meike Behm, T. 0049 – (0)40 – 32 21 57, behm@kunstverein.de
opening: Friday, 11th April 2008, 6 pm
Kunstverein in Hamburg
Klosterwall 23 - Hamburg
open: Tues thru Sun 11 am - 6 pm, Thu 11 am - 9 pm