Barbara Wien

Peter Piller

18 Feb - 15 Apr 2011

© Peter Piller
Lurup 2011
C-Prints, black-and-white and colour photographies
20 x 30 cm, Ed. of 3 copies
PETER PILLER
I prefer to sit alone in a car
February 18, 2011 – April 15, 2011

I prefer to sit alone in a car is the title of the fourth solo exhibition of Peter Piller in our gallery. For the show Piller created several new photo series, for example Schlaf (Sleep) and Lurup.
Lurup, an urban district in Hamburg, seems to be without any places of interest or special characteristics. Piller wrote: in lurup do not live the fans of the football club st. pauli, but the fans of hsv. lur-up means to ambush someone (an important aspect of photography). actually I want to photograph portraits, but till now I am too shy, therefore I photograph all the other beautiful things. Piller mixes his own photographs of this neighbourhood with collected press photographs from the gazette Luruper Nachrichten.

Piller’s photographic series are often closely connected with his everyday life – in Lurup he brings out his own view of his town, other series are dedicated to the commuting between the place of working and living. Due to the professorship in Leipzig he has often to drive between Leipzig and Hamburg. Sitting in the car, he has a lot of time to notice the quaint and boring on his route.
One room of the exhibition is dedicated to the slide projection Kraft (Energy). Regardless which time of day or night, regardless which weather or speed – while passing with the car he photographed the company logo of the tomato sauce enterprise Kraft. The views of the illuminated advertising show 40 times the same in so different manner. Piller comments: there is a need for energy and it looks always different.

The habit to underline sentences in books in order to keep them in mind is the starting point for the new series Anstreichungen (Markings). It is about markings which Piller made in books of his own library. He scanned some of the underlined sentences and enlarged them. They stem from texts about matters in sciences f.e. by Goethe or Heisenberg.

The photo book Schlaf (Sleep) is published on occasion of our exhibition. The photos have been taken by the artist’s son Ludwig. He is 8 years old and, besides flowers and beautifully coloured details of the artist’s household, Ludwig takes primarily photos of his sleeping father, Peter Piller. Piller has chosen 38 of these photographs for the new publication Schlaf (80 pages, printed on one side, 38 colour photographs, 40 x 29,5 cm, Berlin 2011, 750 Euro).
Schlaf is published in an edition of 30 copies only and during the exhibition exclusively available in our gallery.
 

Tags: Peter Piller