"Rut Blees Luxemburg: Phantom"
2003-02-05 until 2003-04-06
Tate Liverpool
Liverpool, , UK United Kingdom

Tate Liverpool is proud to present a new series of specially commissioned photographic works by German artist Rut Blees Luxemburg. Based in London, she has regularly exhibited her work internationally, establishing herself as one of the most interesting young photographers on the British scene.

The photographs for Phantom have been taken in Dakar, capital of Senegal and maritime centre of West Africa. The links between Liverpool and Dakar are historically one of colonialism and the slave trade, but Dakar is now considered a fashion and culture capital and so connects with contemporary Liverpool in more positive ways.

Blees Luxemburg is best known for her images taken during the small hours of urban darkness. Using long exposures and the all encompassing, ever present neon glare of the city, the artist combines precise composition with intricate detail – footprints in silt half washed away or the shadow of a tree across a wall quietly comment on the transitory nature of hidden beauty in the city.

This style presents the viewer with a tragic yet romantic vision of the urban environment. Traces of habitation, suggestions of recent activity or things happening just out of shot invade what might otherwise be cold static scenes void of life. Implied narrative, saturated colours, burnt umbers and gold present an image of a city full of mystery and magic, potential romance and danger – desolate flats and all-night service stations are transformed into stage sets for urban opera.

The photographs of Dakar try to articulate the different ways of building and inhabiting a city and suggest the possibility of a transfer of urban knowledge.

‘In my work I try to illuminate the poetics of space and search for the entry points into the psyche of the city, which allow a free-fall into the city of one’s imagination.’

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