Capturing Absence

Curated Group Exhibition, Kunstverein Kombinage

20-22 May 2022
Curated by Daniel Hill

Curatorial Debut with invited artists from the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography

Exhibition Text (by Daniel Hill): In the poem Immer noch Nichts by Susanne Garber (2022), the author writes: “When there is nothing more, then there is still something / Then there is not nothing / Then there is nothing / And that is something” (translated from original German). In the group exhibition, Capturing Absence, curated by Daniel Hill, emerging artists from the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography are brought together to capture this something, this tangible nothing, through the medium of photography and video. 

The theme of the exhibition, absence, centers on the state or occasion of being away from a place or person. This concept is made all the more interesting through the medium of photography, essentially a subtractive process, in which the artist must capture the sense of absence within a scene that already exists. Through careful composition and cropping, the photographer subtracts unwanted or distracting elements from a scene to create a vision or impression of absence. This contrasts with an additive process, like painting, in which the painter continually applies brush strokes to a canvas, selectively controlling every aspect of the scene by adding elements through creative visualization, until the scene is complete. 

As you move through the exhibition, one can easily grasp that the visualization of absence is individualistic and personal to each artist. The works range from serene and empty landscapes or street views devoid of people, to images and videos of people that nevertheless give you the sense that something is missing, to experimental and abstract works based on analog or digital processes. But in each, the artist captures that feeling of absence through the careful selection of elements included or excluded in a scene.

Partial sponsoring by City of Vienna, Margareten District

Exhibited Artists: Emanuel Aeneas, Mathilde Busse, Susanne Garber, Matthew Gerges, Anna Höfling, Anna Jochum, Helena Kalleitner, Florentin Kurz, Naa Teki Lebar, Lea Marijanocic, Margarita Merkulova, Mara Printz, Kathrin Rehr, Florian Reidinger, Amina Reifenbauer, Valentin Schörghuber