The people in Dirk Eicken’s pictures are neither familiar nor foreign. The painted faces make direct eye contact but remain obscure, out of focus. In contrast to their photographic sources, these people separate themselves from their surroundings, questioning the totalizing aspect of photography. Central to Eicken’s paintings is the resulting balance between figurative presences and absences: whereas photography holds someone as a finished counterpart at a specific moment, painting can allow for a portrait of differing layers of an impression. In this sense, Eicken’s pictures are explicitly concerned with investigating the structure of media generated distances. How does photography shape our relationship to the world today? By showing us the finished and by cutting us off from an unfolding access. With "da zwischen" (there between) Hengesbach Gallery will present the new results of this explorative visual presence between 27 April and 22 June 2013.
Image: Dirk Eicken, Unbekannt1.jpg Teil A, 2012, Öl auf Leinwand, 41 x 59 cm, copyright Hengesbach Gallery Berlin
