The exhibition Imprint comprises works by seven contemporary artists who deconstruct our ideas about the photograph as a window on reality. The exhibition is an exploration of the ambiguous nature of the photograph, while also playing with the potential of the medium and pushing the boundaries. Works in the exhibition remind us that a photograph is an imprint, an iteration, of what it depicts, in a different form. The imprinting itself is addressed by the artists, with reference to photographs as moments that have been frozen, imprinted and preserved.
Photographs may appear to be a neutral manifestation of reality, but in truth they show us only the surface. They are an imprint of the appearance of some specific reality – but we must not forget that the photograph itself is a three-dimensional object. Instead of seeing the photograph as a window on reality, it may be more appropriately viewed as a transformation from one object into another.
The exhibition Imprint is held in connection with the Icelandic Photo Festival 2020, and the photograph is the subject of works in a range of media. The exhibition comprises new and recent works by contemporary artists who have worked with photography, or present imprints of reality in some other way. In the exhibition the photograph floats in a void between media, just as it floats between reality and manifestation.
Artists: Anna Júlía Friðbjörnsdóttir, Bjarki Bragason, Claudia Hausfeld, Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir, Katrín Elvarsdóttir, Pétur Thomsen and Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir. Curator: Brynja Sveinsdóttir.
Photo: Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir, A Few Thoughts on Photography Vol. II, 2019.
