Special exhibition
columned hall
Melk Abbey
28. March - 1.
November 2009
The exposures from Lachlan ‘Lox’ Blair, which combine photography and photogram
techniques, are astounding not only because of the specific development of a
black frame box, which is utilised instead of a camera. These images are unique,
there is no negative, no second edition. Not even a correction is possible, as
the subject is directly exposed to photographic paper.
In the exhibition ‘Nocturna Benedictina’ Blair has concentrated on the renowned
Melk Abbey with its typical baroque architectural details, but also balustrades,
trellises, gardens and statue fragments.
At night when the thousands of tourists
have disappeared and the monks have turned off their lights, he exposes
light-sensitive paper to subjects, achieving images which have nothing in common
with the snapshot industry.
With this choice of technique, the magic and alchemic traits of photography's
invention are
present even today. Although here, the black box of the camera is replaced by
night in nature:
the history of nocturne as archetype of all photography remains the basic theme.
Thus
Blair allows the territory of dreams and the immaterial to become visible, which
corresponds to all good conceptual art.
(from a text by Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer)