Lisa Oppenheim: Billowing

For her exhibition "Everyones Camera" shown at Kunstverein Göttingen, Lisa Oppenheim explores the history of the photographic medium. An atmospheric quality runs throughout the works on view, in which pattern, repetition, and the surface of the photograph itself play a central role. Her images of the moon, billowing smoke, flower arrangements, and patterned fabrics are produced without the help of a camera. Instead, the images are created with negatives that stem from the Internet, or are photograms created by using fabric or supermarket flowers placed directly on the photographic paper. With motifs that revisit early artistic photography combined with the saturated black or metallic sheen of the paper, Lisa Oppenheim’s works constitute a veritable homage to the hand-made print. (Laura Schleussner)