Photographic pictures have replaced figurative representations in painting, graphic arts or sculpture not completely. But compared to the countless Christian, mythological, genre and historical paintings of the 19th century, figurative representations are hardly to find in these traditional media today.
We find figurative representations mostly in advertising and in photographic art, mainly in displayed scenes. Meanwhile,with their finesse and realism they are vastly superior to the historic pictures. Times in which you could only take pictures of really existing motives are over.
Today digital technology allows immeasurable scenic possibilities. Computers can generate all imaginable scenarios and transfer them into a photography-like form.
Dirk Hanus’ displays follow his fantasies and intuitions completely, as his early works do already. On one side, with the selection of models, rooms and interiors they are dramaturgically very carefully prepared. Otherwise, they live from spontaneous decisions when carried out. If his pictures in their computer edited appearance differ from reality later on, this happens in conviction that curiosities and peculiarities of everyday life and of abundant media-presented events from all regions of the world beat all our imaginations. In terms of sociology, Dirk Hanus shows the world of European middle class in his light and color rooms. The actors are all shown solo in interiors, suggesting a certain loneliness and forsakenness. In spite of a varying body language, the pictured persons remain in seemingly dream-like or cinematic scenes, of which we neither know what has happened before nor what will happen in future. The viewer has to create his or her own story. Thus, these surreal scenes become sources of our real emotions and fantasies.
Text by Dr. Enno Kaufhold, Berlin/GERMANY (Abridged – reproduced courtesy of the artist).
Presented as part of the Pingyao International Photography Festival 2014.
