G. Roland Biermann
snow+concrete

15 November - 4 December 2013

Exhibition opening in the presence of the artist on November 18 at 7 pm

On display at the Goethe-Gallery will be five sets of photographs from Biermann's snow+concrete series. Four polyptychs are printed on fused glass and one set consists of archival ink jet prints on aluminium di-bond. Biermann's constructed scenes show snow in an underground car park, ephemeral matter in the confines of a permanent concrete structure. As the snow melts, Biermann records this process of transformation with the photographic camera. His images highlight the preciousness of all things transient. It is the light and airy nature of the snow, the purity of the white and its ever changing shape and form.

Biermann's enduring preoccupation is in fact to find a visual equivalent to the experiences of movement and mobility in time and in space, and ultimately, in society. A visual equivalent sophisticated enough to evoke the richness and concurrently the blurriness of fact versus fiction, metaphysical premises which can be precursors to deepeer transmutations. These subjects are also central to snow+concrete. However, the sequence or order of events can be unsystematic in the sense that it challenges the preconceived idea of how a chain reaction of cause and consequence should be subject to an algorithm of systematic occurence. The melting of the snow is supposed to follow a pattern, predefined by its exposure to the warm air of an underground car park. At times however, the succession of events seems to be in arbitrary or even reversed order, questioning the source, the process and ultimately the result and destination all at once.

As Biermann points out, glass is a unique carrier for the photographic image and, especially in the form of fused glass, very appropriate for snow+concrete: on the one hand the transparency of the glass reduces the physicality of the image and makes it more open and transparent. On the other hand, the fused glass can put more emphaisis on the physical presence of the image: the surface of the fused glass plate with its concave and convex areas creates a three-dimensional effect and provides the image with an almost sculptural quality.

A bilingual hardback catalogue with an introduction by Gabriele Gauler, Director Goethe-Institut Hongkong and an essay by Florian Knothe, invited by Goethe-Institut Hongkong, will accompany the exhibition. Dr. Florian Knothe is the director of the University Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Hong Kong and one of the pre-eminent experts on contemporary glass art in Asia.