ART NOW Gallery Portfolio 2023

„Sinta Tamsjadi and Thomas Schmidt are both photographers and subjects at the same time, as the artist duo photograph themselves – though not in the style of a classical self-portrait, but rather with the intention of blending into the background as individuals in their own works, dissolving into the overall image and becoming part of the representation of an overarching, comprehensive idea. In doing so, they use a remote control to manually operate the camera, so that they can determine when the picture is taken, without, however, being able to fully anticipate the result.

In this way, they seek to explore existential questions in their works. In the photo series Erde and Asche (Earth and Ashes), for example, their bodies blend with the very primordial materials from which we as human beings emerge and into which, in our transience, we pass again into eternity. Birth and death – the inescapable beginning and end of every life. We spend the time in between urgently striving for complete control over as many aspects of our lives as possible. But what happens when we lose this control, even if it is just for a brief moment? Tamsjadi and Schmidt decided to try it out and let themselves fall together – in the truest sense of the word and from a height of several meters – and they captured this moment of supreme loss of control in the photo series Fallen.

The photographs by Tamsjadi and Schmidt show basal, at times archaic-looking scenes which are conceptualised by the artists during a lengthy process and arranged with great effort. Although the images are purely photographic, the works sometimes appear to be painted. With a contrasting illuminated occurrance in the center of the picture, framed by a profoundly dark background or one that dissolves into the unknown, the composition of the pictures is reminiscent of the depictions of nature by the old masters. When the two artists dance unclothed in a cloud of dust and ash or melt into the ground like forest creatures completely covered with earth, the may appear primeval or, by contrast, post-apocalyptic, but in any case, the works always have a mystical dimension and tell stories of panmondial proportions.

Sinta Tamsjadi now lives in Berlin, Thomas Schmidt in Hamburg, and they have been working together as an artist duo since 2014. Both studied in Hamburg – Tamsjadi drama, Schmidt, photo design. Schmidt has worked as a freelance photographer and artist since 1990, Tamsjadi in theatre and film – performing, screenwriting and directing. The work of the artist duo has already been shown in serveral solo and group exhibitions in Germany and Italy.“

Dr. Felix Brosius, ART NOW Gallery http://www.artnow-gallery.com

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Danae

Contemporay Manerism

A catalogue of our series Asche and Erde ©2018

Curated and published by Gaia Serena Simionati, Milan, Italy

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