14.09.2001 - 27.10.2001, Karlsruhe

Peter Pommerer

Katze. Aluminiumherz. Jetztzeit.

 

In the focus of Peter Pommerer’s second solo exhibition of in our gallery is the Egyptian cat-goddess Bastet as a ‘crypto-portrait’. The characteristics of the goddess changed during the course of Egyptian history, the usually benevolent and kind goddess Bastet could adopt traits of other gods and became unpredictable. Cats were considered holy animals by the Egyptians and were often mummified. Modern scientific research, producing x-ray pictures of the mummies, discovered that the actual content often diverged from the indicated. And so the mummy takes on a confusing and blurred identity, it becomes a hybrid being – a phenomenon that has captured Peter Pommerer’s interest for quite a while. For his exhibition in our gallery he will produce a ‘pseudo-mummy’, this mummy’s contents will be shown on x-ray pictures. Oversized graffiti on aluminium boards enable access to Bastet’s world, which the viewer is free to enter.

The question whether the divergence of appearance and reality, that in the case of Bastet concerns faith, is essential at all is implicit in Peter Pommerer’s work. The dictatorship of truth (Foucault), which concerns modern science as much as society in general, is questioned by the act of reviving Bastet in the exhibition room.

Another part of the exhibition are photographs of different surfaces that are already painted or scrawled on, these are then furthered by drawing on the photograph in an associative manner using different techniques. Similar to small-sized diptyches, photography and drawing form a new entity through juxtaposition – without interfering with the given photography.