Candida Höfer
Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK
Candida Höfer has been explicit about the fact that her photographs of diverse cultural institutions are not intended as pieces of social criticism, and yet ‘Palaces, Theatres, Churches and A Casino’ nonetheless provides a considered examination of power. Depicting institutions that range from the monarchy to the church, Höfer’s technical skill allows her to amplify the function of power as fetish. In this sense, these photographs act as a visual manifestation of a phenomenon that is at the core of multiple social constructs.
Höfer has an uncanny eye for the spectacle of power, implicit in the form of her photographs: large-scale images brimming over with detail, and seductively executed. These are the spaces in which the drama of power takes place, whether in state theatres or in palace halls. Some of the most striking images in her current exhibition at Ben Brown Fine Arts (with additional works on view at Robilant + Voena) are of church interiors - sites in which the articulation of power through performativity becomes most dizzyingly potent.
But Höfer’s depiction of the architecture of influence is not a narrative of brutal imposition. Instead, it is more concerned with the compelling nature of power, and its tremendous ability to seduce. These photographs are almost hallucinatory in their sense of scale and distribution of detail; simultaneously formal and embellished, they have the eerie flawlessness of a theatre set.
Höfer is concerned above all with the onlooker’s complicity in maintaining the structure of power, and she only ever implies the audience’s presence. Her theatre photographs focus on the place of the audience rather than that of the stage, while in the church images the congregation – rather than the dais – is focused on. Whether in the theatre or the church, the audience itself is notably absent.
It is in this way that Höfer’s work comes closest to a subtle form of social criticism; her photographs depict the way in which the audience’s awe before the spectacle of power erases both vocal and social presence. This is especially explicit in images of a palace and museum, all of which are taken from the perspective of a temporary visitor, rapt, and in some cases overwhelmed. It is an articulate expression of the individual’s experience of the institution, and hints at the trepidation and paralysis that often is concomitant with awe.
Katie Kitamura
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