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The depth of surface

The biggest mystery on earth is the human being: the relation between others and oneself. What connects and separates us? We see somebody's face, the shape of a body and gestures. They conceal, we suppose, a inner self, an essence. That's what makes images of people so mysterious and fascinating.

Sylvia Händel shoots photographs of people, extracts images of human beings form the media or harvests them form the vast fund of art history. By applying the technique of black and white photocopy she deprives the images of their picturesque and colorful aura. She reduces the image to material which she then cuts up, mounts, partially colors and artfully folds creating paper objects. A fragile sheet of paper gains volume, grows into three dimensions, and makes us experience that there is a depth to the surface, something that lies beneath, a center from where our very essence emerges.

In secret we all long to draw someone's attention and feel accepted. And we would love to be able to control the image that forms on the surface between our inside and outside: There is this thrilling game between fact and fantasy, with all its facets of hope, devotion, lust, the pleasure of masquerading and the secret fear of failure, the fear of revealing something that is, or that we consider embarrassing.

With her photocopjects  ® Sylvia Händel unfolds a rich and inspiring cosmos of pieces of art that through their attractive surfaces give us an insight into the thrilling and complex depth beneath the human surface.

Text: Gernot Wilberg  Translation: Yvonne Schmickl