SILBER

AFTER ALFRED EHRHARDT

2019

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UV direct print on Plexiglas and paper coated with silver leaf

80 x 60 x 3 cm

This work stems from an invitation extended by the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation to reinterpret the work of Alfred Ehrhardt.

Le Minh took an especial interest in Ehrhardt's photographs of crystals and minerals from 1938-39. The relationship between volume and light as well as the effects of transparency and diffraction with which Ehrhardt is playing masterfully in these photographs produce a remarkable synthesis of his musical education, his studies at the Bauhaus, and his readings in German Naturphilosophie.

The work Silber replays the series Kristallklar in a tautological way : instead of juxtaposing a crystal negative with a landscape of the crystals' region of origin, she superposes the image of the negative onto a background of silver-plated paper. Indeed, this crystal is a silver nugget, a very special material in so far as it is the base of analogue photography.