How can we fall without ever hitting the ground? This Saturday, we will make a hystery with fainting to explore the weight of our bodies under gravity beginning with violets and ending with horsehair. We will work on falling, wilting, melting, ...
A component of "Don't Perish" is to have a farm stand Saturdays to present the origin of food. This week Mead Orchards will be at Projekte all day saturday and are donating the proceeds to the Food Bank of New York. Please come by, see t...
Arnold Odermatt, Buochs, 1976
Gelatin silver print, Ed. 6/8, 30 x 40 cm (12 x 15 3/4")
Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte is pleased to present a selection of photographs by Arnold Odermatt. These photographs were taken from the 1950’s through the 70’s while Odermatt was a police officer and official police photographer of the canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland. Joining the police force in 1948, when he was in his twenties, Odermatt assembled a large inventory of “accident “ photographs. During his career, he documented countless vehicular mishaps along Nidwalden’s treacherous roads as well as its quiet village streets. Arriving at the scene of an accident, Odermatt would take one set of photographs for the police and insurance files, and another set for himself.
The photographs, all black and white, are a narrative of absence. The contrast of crushed metal against breathtaking views of mountains and countryside or glimpses of quaint small town quietude creates a strange tension. The images cross over from the forensic to the elegiac and back again. Though hardly clinical, the images accurately depict numerous impacts, and their resulting effects upon structures and vessels. Evidence of the victims however, is stringently excluded. Stripped of this evidence, the viewer can contemplate folds in metal, and pinpoints of light reflected in shards of glass from a vantage point that adds the necessary distance that is required for aesthetic consideration. Thus Odermatt’s work suggests an innate and nuanced eye for formalist inventions, moving the photographs beyond the realm of mere documentation into one of exquisitely poignant works of art.
Born in Oberdorf Switzerland in 1925, Arnold Odermatt worked as a baker until he joined the Swiss police force in 1948. He remained with the Nidwalden police department for over 40 years from 1948 to 1990, when he retired from the rank of First Lieutenant Head of Traffic Police and Deputy to Commander of the Nidwalden Police. Though never trained as an artist, Arnold Odermatt’s collection of photos were discovered by Harald Szeeman while the curator was visiting Nidwalden. Szeeman was so impressed by the body of work that he exhibited them in the 49th Venice Biennial. Odermatt was also given a one-person exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. A catalogue of his work entitled Karombolage was published by Seidl in 2003.
The summer hours at the gallery are Mondays through Fridays, 10-6pm. For further information or visuals, please contact Elizabeth Balogh or Nicole Russo.
