David Lindert

„Inner Sanctum” May 25, 2021 - Jun 22, 2021

What is the purest form of subjectivity?
A poet describing his world to us, letting us take part in every piece of his imperfect little life, sharing all of his most immediate thoughts – is that something that we can call subjective? Or what about pictures? Abusing an apparatus to depict an ultimate and exclusive moment, ripped out of its context, these milliseconds of a porous reality forming one of its own – isn’t that introspective? Life with the constant question of when to pull the trigger…

Most of David Lindert’s photographs take his personal and poetic gaze as a point of departure. He deals with something that I like to call ‘abject beauty’, regularly documenting his own life, escapades, friends, strangers, joy, drug use and repeatedly, his grandma. In a fruitful contrast of observation and preservation, it almost feels like he takes photos with his bare eyes. I find it hard to evoke an image in my head of David using a camera and that despite having seen him do so myself in the past. He manages to veil this moment of taking a photo whereas his character always remains deeply rooted and incredibly attendant within the final images. Maybe there is something special about his presence in the moment that weirdly provokes an absence of the author in the outcome? Despite chasing a roaring signature style, his images tend to speak in silence.

The exhibition presented at OoO is shaped by permeability. Starting with two older works in the hallway space, Lindert hints at his work throughout the years typically involving portraits. The rest of the show is focused around a series of new still lifes, shown next doors in the living room of the adjacent flat. In this series consisting of eight photographs, the vulnerability of inner and outer spaces, mental as well as physical ones, is being addressed. Working through binary polar systems, in which nature opposes cities and light opposes darkness, Lindert modestly catches moments of flux. Within some crooked blinds, he discovers rays of light. Behind a closing door, someone is ready to fight or flight. It is within fields of deep dripping saturated green in which he finds hope. Stepping out of a rigorously private sphere, “Inner Sanctum” is some sanity within the insane; navigation without a compass. It is about finding some peace.