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).