Simon Senn
08 Mar - 26 Apr 2014
SIMON SENN
8 March - 26 April 2014
Galerie Nicola von Senger is pleased to present the third exhibition by the young Swiss artist Simon Senn.
Two nude individuals are surrounded by sixteen people which are directed to take as many pictures of them as possible. The action concludes after five minutes. 720 pictures are taken, from which 150 are selected to be featured at Galerie Nicola von Senger.
Stripped bare, treated as prey for a pack of photographers, and literally trapped by the flashes, allowing them no relief, they try to escape the onlookers gaze. In response to the abundance of intrusive images and overexposure of the body, various behaviours and emotions are aroused.
As the camera captures merciless the ecstasy, it freezes the image forever, allowing us to fulfill our desire to see, consume and enter into other people’s private lives. Paradoxically, it also satisfies our need to be seen. Photography is a collaborative game - the photographed performs, while the observer is subjected to the gaze and has no option but to succumb to it.
Being photographed removes the control and portrayal of the individuals own image, therefore they cannot influence how onlookers perceive them. There are fragments of the photographed individual that are lost; they are no longer themselves and parts of their individuality and uniqueness are stripped from them.
8 March - 26 April 2014
Galerie Nicola von Senger is pleased to present the third exhibition by the young Swiss artist Simon Senn.
Two nude individuals are surrounded by sixteen people which are directed to take as many pictures of them as possible. The action concludes after five minutes. 720 pictures are taken, from which 150 are selected to be featured at Galerie Nicola von Senger.
Stripped bare, treated as prey for a pack of photographers, and literally trapped by the flashes, allowing them no relief, they try to escape the onlookers gaze. In response to the abundance of intrusive images and overexposure of the body, various behaviours and emotions are aroused.
As the camera captures merciless the ecstasy, it freezes the image forever, allowing us to fulfill our desire to see, consume and enter into other people’s private lives. Paradoxically, it also satisfies our need to be seen. Photography is a collaborative game - the photographed performs, while the observer is subjected to the gaze and has no option but to succumb to it.
Being photographed removes the control and portrayal of the individuals own image, therefore they cannot influence how onlookers perceive them. There are fragments of the photographed individual that are lost; they are no longer themselves and parts of their individuality and uniqueness are stripped from them.