Thomas Eller
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Thomas Eller (* September 8, 1964) is a German visual artist and writer. Born and raised in the German district of Franconia he left Nürnberg in 1985 to study fine art at the Berlin University of the Arts. After his forced dismission he studied sciences of religion, philosophy and art history at Free University of Berlin. During this time he was also working as a scientific assistant at the Science Center Berlin for Social Research (WZB).
From 1990 he exhibited extensively in European museums and galleries. In 1995 he obtained his greencard and moved to New York. Next he participated in exhibitions in museums and galleries in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
In 2004 he moved back to Germany and founded an online arts magazine on the internet platform artnet.
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[edit] The Art
On a formal level Thomas Eller’s art is concerned with the relationship between the second, third and fourth dimensions. His photo-sculptures are made from cut-out photographic prints laminated on aluminum that are hung in front of the wall, placed on the floor, or suspended in space by means of hidden constructions made from aluminum.
By cutting out photographed objects it is not the spatial context that is being removed, but the temporal. The reason being that the viewers perspective on an object is forever determined at the moment of release of the camera’s shutter. According to Roland Barthes a photografic image is a window into the past. By cutting out an object, it is the temporal context that is being removed while the object is being placed into the „now“ of the viewer’s immediate sculptural perception. However the photographic object manifests a spatial concept alien to the viewer’s. For example: Taking a photograph of an object form above will always result in an image with that perspective. If on takes this photo-object and places it over the viewer’s head one makes the physical experience of looking up. This conflict of looking up and down at the same time can not be resolved, which constitutes the photo-objects as intermediaries between the two and three-dimensional realms. They could be appropriately described as apparitions.
In different work groups like THE bounty, or THE objectile Thomas Eller explores more complex temporal structures. Placing the same objects at different instances in time in juxtaposition but on different spatial levels the viewer is enabled to make an unusual visual experience. By focussing on different levels of the same object on at a time the spatial juxtaposition is being transformed into a temporal sequence, creating the experience of a „sculptural“ video. It is only in the viewer’s mind that the different spatial planes become sensical.
The artist calls this „Vision Beyond Photography“: Photography’s physical and philosophical concepts are basically 600 years old. The camera essentially is central perspective become machine and therefore a pre-modern imaging medium. In his work the artist breaks with this limitation. Engaging the viewer in the visual constitution of the art works does not only assign a place for photography beyond the euclidian notion of space. but, in a precarious switch of perspectives, makes the viewer the essential focus of the image.
[edit] Awards
2005 Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis of the Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
2000 Villa Romana Prize
1996 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium
[edit] Literature
Zimmermann, Inge (ed.): Thomas Eller. Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis 2006. Akademie der Künste, Berlin 2006
Arratia, Euridice: Manipulaciones. Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas 2005
Merkert, Jörn: Kunst die in Berlin entstand. Prestel Verlag, München 2004
DeOliveira, Nicolas, et al.: Installation Art in the New Millennium. Thames & Hudson, 2003, S. 189
Rose, Sam: Simultaneous Vision. in: Thomas Eller. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stiftung (ed.), Berlin 2000
Russ, Sabine and Gregory Volk: Personal Touch, Art-in-General (ed.), New York 1998
Winkelmann, Jan (red.): Wer ist Thomas Eller? Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen 1994
