Life and all its creases
German artist Simon Schubert’s folded paper presented me with a small, unexpected dilemma when it was preparing these images to post. Above is one of his portraits — I’m not sure if this is Samuel Beckett or not — with contrast added, and below as it’s presented on his website.
Does it lose something when the contrast is enhanced? It certainly looks less like a sheet of paper that anyone might pick up and toy with absent-mindedly — or go to work on vigorously.
The two folded images below, only slightly enhanced, might give a better sense of the ghostliness that’s lost when Photoshop utilised on Schubert’s creations. Because that’s what I think he’s trying to maintain in the clever process, when seen in a more neutral light: a spirit roaming the page, an inkling of potential, a memory of something lost.
“Read” the paper again and there are warnings of life’s fragility.
In his lifelike sculptures that often become parts of larger installations, Schubert summonses the revelation and whimsy of Rene Magritte.
The image of what appears to be a mannequin falsely duplicated in a mirror is a take on Magritte’s “La Reproduction Interdite”, seen here, depicting the art patron Edward James.
Nicely rendered and a reminder of how subtle visual imagery can evoke powerful emotions.