Phantom Barks
The medium of photography is developing rapidly, has penetrated almost all aspects of our lives and has long outgrown its documentary function. Photographic images are no longer just for thinking about or looking at, but also for touching and communicating with, or functioning as a passage, a portal, an interface or an impulse to action.
In their new video work ‘Phantom Barks’, Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen investigate the infinitely malleable and ultra-thin surface of digital photography and the role the medium can play in shaping our experience and memory. The artist duo will present the work on three large screens, each displaying a video composed of a three-dimensional photographic reconstruction of a tree bark from the protected and inaccessible Białowieża Forest, one of the last corners of Europe where nature can take its course. Together with a guide, Broersen and Lukács explored this forest and documented various tree casts in hundreds of photographs. ‘Phantom Barks’ is characterised by hyper-realistic precision on the one hand, while a virtual monstrosity arises on the other, a corrupted simulation of reality. What remains is a thin layer of patina, a false reality in which only the surface reveals itself.
Courtesy of: AKINCI Gallery.
