Hong Kong, September 17 – October 10, 2015, http://www.leogallery.com.cn
Alec von Bargen is an actor-turned photographer. His acting experience seeps through into his photographic work, which is always centered on human individuals, their expressions and feelings. Formally, works are either specific portraits of anonymous individuals, or photographs of more generic silhouettes that metaphorically stand for universal emotions or states of mind.
For reasons not obvious, almost all of the photographs are presented as fragments: Cut into stripes or tiles, sometimes overlaid with further stripes. Fragmenting the photograph’s surface with sharp lines, while leaving the underlying image intact draws attention to the surface, similar as if looking at a prisoner peeking through prison bars. The resulting work seems to play the role of an alienation tool rather than a tool of understanding. But why, if the focus is on the human and his emotions (as expressed by the titles)? Why putting emotions behind prison bars, also known as graphic design of the images surface? Is it to tame them?
Without becoming too philosophical, the photo tiles may have a much more prosaic reason: Lower production, shipping and storage costs.
