No, this is not about the German city, as you probably would have expected. This is about the new series from Erwin Olaf. I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem (MMKA). As a matter of fact, the exhibition is called Regressive and consists of the series Dawn & Dusk (2009), Keyhole (2011) and Berlin (2012). The last two series were exhibited for the first time in the Netherlands.
Erwin Olaf’s work is best described as magic realism. His images are of realistic and recognizable environments, but contain elements that are not expected to be there. This raises many why questions for the viewer and makes you stand still by many of his photographs. All his photos are heavily directed and staged.
There’s plenty of information on Erwin Olaf to be found on the internet. So I’m not going to repeat here what you can find yourself and pretend I’m some sort of guru. A good place to start is www.erwinolaf.com. Out of the 3 series that were exhibited I liked Berlin best. Mainly because it reminded me of his other work in Grief (2007), Hope (2005) and Rain (2004).
Erwin Olaf is clearly a perfectionist. Every photograph is carefully directed to the smallest detail. But also the clothing, the lighting, the background, everything. Berlin was shot, as the name suggests, in Berlin in 2012. The 1920’s and 1930’s inspired him for this series. He sees a certain resemblance with the world we live in today. Somehow we feel something is going to happen, but in the meantime we continue with dancing and singing. The city had its cultural hayday in those years just as it’s having today.
Another area of the museum was dedicated to various magic realistic Dutch painters like Carel Willink, Pyke Koch, Dick Ket and others. You’re immediately struck by the resemblance with Erwin Olaf’s photography. In several interviews Olaf indeed states that he has been influenced by the painters from this art movement. If you’re not familiar with these painters, do a bit a browsing on the internet. To give you an impression of their work, have a look at some of their paintings below. Notice the striking similarity.
