Rob Johannesma

Rob Johannesma

Opening on Friday October 25th 2002 from 7 ? 9 pm
Exhibition from October 25th - December 7th 2002
Opening hours Wed ? Fri 1 ? 7 pm, Sat 1 ? 6 pm

Galerie Kamm is pleased to present the Dutch artist Rob Johannesma (*1970), with a solo show in the
Gallery.

The videos by Rob Johannesma are based on photos and video stills of landscapes, which he films with a video camera. Whereas the perception of the viewer were manipulated by the camera movements in his earlier works, the question of ?who is looking at what? is in focus in the new video presented in the exhibition.

For half an hour, the camera is slowly moving across a coloured image of a geyser pool, an image of a still and lifeless nature. The circling cam-era on the surface, resembles an aimless and endless search for the ideal position.
The spectator is following this slow process, until a dark shadow appears in the image, and an interchange between identity and reality begins. Is somebody looking at the nature over the shoulder of another person? Or is it the shadow of the spectator? Who is looking at what?
Sometimes the shape of the shadow falls together with the shadows of the nature in the picture, and it is as if a person is standing next to the geyser pool. At other moments the shadow boldly blocks the picture for a great part and illustrates that it is only an illusion of the nature.

The shadow as imaginary spectator is neither part of the exhibition space, nor of the landscape. When it occurs in the image, it is symbolis-ing the slow transition between different realities: the derivative of reality in the photography, the filming of this reality, and the reality of the spectator?s space and
experience. The shadow interrupts the viewer?s hope that nature will move suddenly, or the hopelessness that it will always be dead and still. As if there is an osmosis between still images and the moving images, slow but not still at all.

Parallel to the exhibition in the gallery, a big solo show by Rob Johan-nesma can be seen at Kunstbunker ? Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst Nürn-berg, from 7.11. ? 4.12.2002. In connection with this exhibition a cata-logue will be published.