Happy Holidays and New Year!

Holy Shit!

During this annual holiday season, one can find some of the most outrageous and ridiculous shopping window decorations here in New York. I would like to share my personal top three with you: polar bear Knut-look-alike sniffing the Virgin, Nutcrackers amongst lingerie, as well as a x-mas tree made of neckties. Hmmmm.
(click on image to enlarge)

T Magazine Blog (New York Times)

Just a brief note in regards to my commercial work: the New York Times' T Magazine used one of my portraits of Richard Phillip in a recent post on their blog.

Holiday Extravaganza

A friend, who works for the New York office of the German magazine Stern, invited us to tonight's Holiday Extravaganza, co-hosted by the before-mentioned magazine and Magnum, the famous New York photo agency, at DUMBO's powerHouse Arena. Magnum launched its new book titled ... uhm ... "Magnum Magnum". And of course, it's another heavy-weight coffee table book (if you even have space for the required size of coffee table in your New York apartment). Is there some sort of arms race going on between publishing houses? Couldn't we just hand Taschen the crown for most ridiculous book formats?

Anyway. Stern hosted what the magazine called its First Annual Photo Forum, which basically consisted of a continuous slide show of images by invited photographers on large flat screen monitors. Unfortunately, it was merely a back-drop for the drinking and elbow-rubbing in the Arena. Nothing spoke of "holiday" (except for the light snowfall outside the large windows) and very little seemed truly extravagant. It was just another typical New York event with lots of people drinking free booze. Prost! Yup.

Well, it was nice to see a friend, though. That's what really matters anyway, right?

Review: New Photography 2007?

On Sunday, I went to the MoMA to see the showcasing of the museum's annual New Photography, recently acquired works of "emerging" photographers. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to admit, it was rather disappointing.

First, there is Tanyth Berkeley. One cannot help to feel uncomfortable looking at these images. Not that the people who she portraits are more odd than the rest of us New Yorkers, but Berkeley seems to pick her models for specific traits, like extreme paleness, skinny bodies or a certain gender ambiguity. It is her close distance from which she shots, the collapsing of personal space, that makes looking at these apparently voluntarily posing models such an disquieting task. I assume the examples of Diane Arbus' work in the next room are no coincidence.

Then, there is a strong trend in current photography -- started, or at least co-started, like many other trends in this medium by the Becher School "Strufskys" -- where several images are digitally seamlessly combined into one. Although some of these photographers are more successful in doing so (e.g. see Beate Gütschow's intriguing landscapes), in most instances nothing new is gained by this digital practice. Sure, it's another inquiry into the truthfulness of photography -- with some admittedly perplexing results -- but the arguments about the manipulation of reality remain the same. So, when Scott McFarland shows a garden scene in which he photographed the same location during different seasons and edited them into one view, with fall-colored trees and spring blossoms side by side, one cannot help but feel somewhat indifferent about it.

In the end, I was most drawn to the quiet, pensive and rather sensual images of Berni Searle, depicting a woman in a huge pile of what appears to be grape skins. She photographed the woman in different places within the pile and then combined the images to form a continuous wave of piles from one frame to another. The beauty of these images along with their allusions to various contemporary issues makes this series a generous invitation to linger, look and contemplate.

New York's first snow this season

Central Park, NYC (12/02/2007)

Last Chance: "mixed messages" in DUMBO

Okay, this is the final weekend for "mixed messages". If you haven't seen it yet, this is your last chance. At least for 2007. ;) The gallery will be open on Thursday from noon until 8 pm, as well as Friday and Saturday from noon until 6 pm. I hope you can make it. And please feel free to share your feedback about my work here. In any case, thank you for your interest and support!

Also still available: my book "Critical Distance" (2007). It's a signed limited edition of 50. You can get it at the gallery or directly through me.

Safe-T-Gallery
111 Front Street
Suite 214
DUMBO/Brooklyn
T: 718.782.5920

Artists Meeting Website

The new website for the artists group, simply called Artists Meeting, is up and running. I am co-founder and member of this collective. It has been an interesting and productive experience so far and I look forward to more of the same next year. Please check out the website and keep an eye open for our group projects.

Artists Meeting

Tim Griffin

I'd like to quote Tim Griffin who expressed so eloquently -- in the context of an article on Paul Chan's staging of "Waiting for Godot" in New Orleans (Artforum, 12/2007, p.51) -- what so many of us feel and seek: "In light of a booming market whose culture of investment is continually eclipsing any sense of art's speaking meaningfully to society at large, and against the backdrop of political developments whose increasing gravity only underscores that diminished relationship, many artists are seeking venues beyond the conventional circuitry of the art world (and scutling any vestiges of the myth of art's autonomy) to obtain a renewed sense of relevance and consequence in practice. Art is, it seems, in want of a little airing out." However, most artists' reality is too precarious, of course, to afford them before-mentioned "outside" opportunities. So, we grudgingly keep breathing the stale air for a bit longer. Perhaps, all the Tim Griffins in the art world can open some windows.

This (shopping) Season ...

The turkey sandwiches are still occupying the refrigerators, and yet, this week was the official opening of the (next) holiday season, complete with lighting of x-mas trees, music and ridiculous looking Santas & co. But of course, all this is simply dress-up for the biggest shopping season of the year. Reading the signs ... well ... and the newspapers, one gets the sense that the holiday spirit is desperately prayed for but not really shared on Wall Street and in the White House. It seems only consumer spending will pull the US out of the slump, and thus, save the country and world from a recession. And while hedge-fond managers and their entourage already got their excessive holiday bonuses and are on their way to Art Basel Miami Beach to spend it and party, the rest of us eat warmed-up turkey and listen to motivational tapes. Yeah, we can do it! Spend all your money and more! Apropos, some people seem desperate enough for cash that they offer their kids in special stores, as seen here (pic above) on the Upper West Side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Americans love a good parade, don't they? And no city has more parades than New York. And of course, Thanksgiving is no different with the much anticipated, mass-ornamental and highly commercial M@$%'s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Normally, we can get "enough" of a glimpse from our window, but since the weather is so gorgeous today, we decided to take a good look from the crowded street. Interestingly, it was a German-American named Anthony Frederick Sarg who invented the popular helium-filled balloons for this parade, first introducing them in 1928. Back then, they were mostly animals and up to 125 feet (40 meters) long. Anyway, enjoy the day with friends and family. And please also give some thanks to Native Americans who, after all, fed the first white settlers here and have lost so much of their land, culture and way of life since.

A blurb is a blurb

Gallery Hours for the Thanksgiving Weekend

mixed messages will be closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22nd), but open for the rest of Thanksgiving Weekend (November 23-25). In other words, Safe-T-Gallery will be open to the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from noon until 6 PM. Perhaps, you can make DUMBO -- and my exhibtion in particular -- the destination for you weekend stroll with friends and/or family. I would certainly appreciate it.

Safe-T-Gallery
111 Front Street
Suite 214
DUMBO/Brooklyn
T: 718.782.5920

Another update on BorderBlog

I have just updated BorderBlog with image contributions by Jacqueline E. Mitchell, Karen Bucher, Tom Licht and myself. Please take a look and pass it on. And as always, feel free to contribute images at any time. Thank you.
BorderBlog

Review: foto – Modernity in Central Europe

Today, I went to see “foto – Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945” at the Guggenheim Museum here in New York. I haven’t been to the Guggenheim for a while, because previously most exhibitions turned out to be utterly disappointing, and most since didn’t even spark my interest. So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that “foto” is a traveling exhibition initially organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. This exhibition is a great overview of Central European photography (mainly) in the years between the wars, a fabulous array of loaned images from numerous museums and private collections. It includes a number of photographers one would expect in such a survey, like August Sander, Lotte Jacobi, Hans Bellmer, Hanna Höch, Josef Sudek, László Moholy-Nagy, or El Lissitzky. But one also encounters many names – and works – for the very first time through this exhibition. Plus, there is a refreshingly significant number of women photographers in this show – which is, after all, rather representative for the period and the medium. Some of the gems in “foto” are a self-portrait of John Heartfield, some great images by Umbo, photomontages by people like Lajos Vaida, Rudolf Lutz, Marianne Brandt or Kazimierez Podsadecki, and an incredible photo of a demonstration at Charles University by Karel Hájek. I also was delighted to see a couple of images by Karel Teige, a Czech avant-garde figure which I learned to appreciate through his visionary book “The Minimum Dwelling” (1932) recently re-published by MIT Press. I would recommend “foto – Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945” to everyone who is interested in Modernist art and photography. It runs through January 13th, 2008. Also check out the gorgeous accompanying catalogue.

More images from my exhibition "mixed messages"

Deborah Kelly in Weimar and Leipzig

My Australian friend and fellow artist Deborah Kelly will be included in an upcoming exhibition in Weimar and Leipzig, my home region in Germany. The group exhibition is called THE Big EaSY: Relocating the Myth of the «West» and will run from 26 November, 2007 – 6 January, 2008 in Weimar (ACC Galerie) and from 25 November, 2007 – 13 January, 2008 in Leipzig (Halle 12, Baumwollspinnerei). For more information check out

more about Deborah ... and here a recent article

Beware of the God

ACC Galerie Weimar
Leipzig Baumwollspinnerei

So, if you happen to be in the Thuringia/Saxony area, please stop by for this exhibition!

Und auf Deutsch: Falls Ihr zwischen Ende November und Anfang Januar in Weimar oder Leipzig sein solltet, besucht die Gruppenausstellung im ACC Weimar bzw. Halle 12 der Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei. Deborahs Arbeiten sind einzigartig und immer einen Besuch wert!

Germany and November 9th

This picture is my belated contribution to yesterday's Ninth of November. Yes, it was the day of the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But November 9th was also the day of the German Revolution in 1918 (the beginning of the Weimar Republic), the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923 (Hitler's first unsuccessful grab for power; he was later appointed chancellor in January 1933, and his party, the NSDAP, was voted into power in March 1933), and Reichspogromnacht or Kristallnacht in 1938 (the beginning of the Holocaust). Let's remember that when celebrating our re-united Germany. After all, this country's history is complex, to say the least.

So, the two images -- one taken in SoHo/NYC and the other in Houston -- represent for me not only the complexities of the German unification, but also signify the schizophrenic nature of Germany and our history. Deutsch and Deutsch, German and German indeed.

(click on the image to enlarge)

BorderBlog update

I have just updated BorderBlog with images by one of the most active contributors, Tom Licht. Tom took issue with the recent xenophobic and racist election campaign of the Swiss SVP. Unfortunately, despite massive protests and counter-campaigns, a large number of the Swiss fell for the right-wing visual and verbal rhetoric of the SVP and their main candidate, the former industrialist Christoph Blocher, electing them as the largest party into the Swiss parliament.

BorderBlog

Opening: "mixed messages"

Tonight's opening of "mixed messages" at Safe-T-Gallery was truly a success. Besides a great turn-out of general gallery visitors, a good number of friends from near and far stopped by to look at the work and mingle. There even was a good friend and photography enthusiast who made a surprise visit from Gainesville, FL.

The feedback was very positive throughout. Everybody seemed very drawn to my photographs, studying every detail, the embedded texts, and various image juxtapositions intensely. I was quite thrilled by the range and depth of questions, inquiries, and comments that I encountered. A great evening indeed.

Of course, all this would not have been possible without the hard work of Safe-T-Gallery's Don Burmeister. I also would like to thank my fiancée Laura Shea as well as my parents for their unfaltering and continued support.

Happy Halloween!

Opening Reception

If you are curious about my work and happen to be in New York on November 1st, 2008, please join us for the opening reception of "mixed messages" at Safe-T-Gallery in DUMBO (Brooklyn, NY). I am very excited to show a selection of eight photographs from this series of twenty. Please read below press release or check out my website for more information about these images. A few copies of my limited edition book "Critical Distance" will also be available at the occasion. We hope to see you there.

Thursday, November 1st, 2008
from 6 to 8 PM
Safe-T-Gallery
111 Front Street, Suite 214
DUMBO/Brooklyn, NY 11201

Gallery Hours:
Thursdays from 12-8PM
Fridays-Sundays from 12-6PM

Press Release: "mixed messages" at Safe-T-Gallery

Daniel Blochwitz

“mixed messages”

November 1 to December 1, 2007
Opening Reception: Thursday November 1, 6 to 8 PM

The luminous, articulated and subtly subversive photographs of Daniel Blochwitz will be exhibited from November 1st to December 1st at Safe-T-Gallery in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn in a show called “mixed messages.” Each piece in the show consists of a grid of from 15 to 25 inter-related color photographs, each panel functioning as a commentary or foil for the meanings and contexts of all the surrounding views. The images inter-relate both in their content (which is often textual), as well as in the structural elements of the pictures, the lines, shapes and colors. The resulting assemblage of combined images forms a witty pictorial maze that leads the viewer into new and unexpected insights both about current affairs and about the way that we perceive our super-saturated urban environment.

Daniel Blochwitz was born in East Germany and came to study in the US in 1995. He writes, “Being part of a generation that grows up between cultures, ideologies, and continents ... fuels my investigations into the meaning of home and belonging, patterns of migration and borders, aspects of class and economic divides, and representations of signs and language.” His work displays the impact of analytic/conceptual photographers such as Martha Rosler and Allen Sekula, but he brings a sharper, more contemporary sensibility to his work. Not burdened by the separation between traditional photographic traditions and the digital world, his work is nurtured, not constrained, by it’s dialogue with the theoretical and political belief systems of the recent past.

Daniel Blochwitz received his MFA from the University of Florida in 2003 and went on to the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Arts in New York. He has shown work in the US and Europe and worked with Martha Rosler and the FLEAS Collective at the 2003 Venice Bienniale. He currently lives and works in New York City. “mixed messages” will be his first one-person show in New York.

There will be an opening reception for the artist at Safe-T-Gallery on Thursday, November 1 from 6 to 8 PM, to which all are invited.

Safe-T-Gallery, 111 Front Street, Suite 214, Brooklyn, NY 11201 is located in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, between Washington and Adams Streets, and is easily accessible by subway on the F (York St. Station), A and C (High St.), and the 2 and 3 (Clark St.) lines. Hours are Wednesday through Saturday 12 to 6. Thursday to 8. Admission is free. Further information, pictures and directions are available at the gallery web site: www.safeTgallery.com.

Critical Distance

I'm publishing a book, signed and limited to 50 copies, called "Critical Distance - A Perpetual Absence of Home". The concept of this book comes from my ambiguous feeling toward any notion of home or "Heimat" and my simultaneous desire to belong. The country I grew up in does not exist anymore, at least not as such. And meanwhile, I have lived longer in the United States than in the united Germany. I am feeling out of place more often than at home, trying to get comfortable with the idea of sitting on the fence. And so, while not having any desire to be either German or US-American, I wonder where "home" is situated. Perhaps home is just the path one travels from one place to another, the people one travels with, the experiences one creates on the way, and the memories one retains. So, on 90 pages, the book follows my travels from place to place and back: photographs showing Germany as I move in and through, parenthesized by images of airport and in-flight scenes. What did I find? Find out for yourself. Contact me for a copy of the book.

Textimage

The most recent edition of the French online magazine "Textimage" is publishing an online portfolio of my "mixed messages" series under the title "Détournement". Some of the images are older versions of the final grid layouts, but that might be interesting to some people in regard to the evolution of my work. Take a look: Revue TextImage

Finally: launch of my website

After -- literally -- years of no website or just a preliminary space holder, I have finally launched my new website at www.danielblochwitz.com this week. It was designed by Jarrod Ryhal (www.ryhaldesign.com), and I think it looks great. It provides an overview of my art production in recent years, its concepts, contexts and aesthetics.

In "Making Art", the site highlights four of my projects: my first solo exhibition "Insight from Outside: East German Memories in Havana" (2001), my MFA thesis exhibition "Portiers and Gatekeepers" (2003), "Heim|Fern|Weh" (2004), and "mixed messages" (2006-07). An additional gallery, called "Other", provides glimpses into a number of other projects I have been working on, or which are still in progress, ranging from early works (1995-99) until today. In this blog I will post any updates, including new images, information in regard to upcoming exhibitions, publications and press.

So please bookmark this site and make sure you check in frequently!

P.S. If you would like to hire me for a job, to photograph, translate, write, or -- above all -- teach, please check out the information under "Making a Living" on my website; please feel free to contact me (contact@danielblochwitz.com).