In the Sound of Shadows — Sa­rah van Rij at the Deich­tor­hal­len Ham­burg

Dutch pho­to­grapher Sa­rah van Rij (*1990) in­vi­tes you to her first so­lo ex­hi­bi­ti­on in Ger­ma­ny at the Deich­tor­hal­len Ham­bur­g’s Hal­le für ak­tu­el­le Kunst. Un­der the title “In the Sound of Shadows”, she un­folds the poe­tic po­ten­ti­al of the ever­y­day and sur­pri­ses wi­th a spe­cial sen­si­ti­vi­ty for de­tails. Her frag­men­ta­ry, tim­e­l­ess and mys­te­rious-loo­king pic­to­ri­al com­po­si­ti­ons are crea­ted th­rough a so­phisti­ca­ted in­ter­play of light and dark that trans­ports the view­er in­to a fa­sci­na­ting world of shadow theat­re and vi­su­al poet­ry.

Cen­tral to van Ri­j’s work are sil­hou­et­tes, re­cur­ring ob­jects and the in­ter­play of shapes and co­lours that de­ter­mi­ne the rhythm of a vi­su­al score. Her pho­to­graphs tell sto­ries bey­ond the vi­si­ble and crea­te an at­mo­sphe­re in which the un­spec­ta­cu­lar sud­den­ly ap­pears ex­tra­or­di­na­ry. Mo­re than twen­ty works from the last se­ven ye­ars, so­me of them lar­ge-for­mat, are on dis­play and show the ran­ge of her uni­que vi­su­al lan­guage. Van Rij sees hers­elf as a no­mad and shares in her pic­tures a lon­ging for mo­ments that trans­form the ever­y­day in­to the poe­tic.