Science & Friction

© Joan Fontcuberta

In the exhibition Science & Friction, Joan Fontcuberta presented three works. In Herbarium (1982), photographies were shown within a scientific context of non-existing plants, together with books, illustrations, dried flowers and special tools. The name of the exhibition, Herbarium, is a reference to the objective, typological style of the botanical photographies that Karl Blossfeldt took to his project Urformen der Kunst in Germany in the 1930s. This arrangement, that should lead the thoughts to order and classification, has a deep sense of gratitude to the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné’s thoughts. Herbarium is using Blossfeltd’s famous art prints to make us aware of the assumptions we can make about what we see if the objects in the photographs are presented in a familiar way.

The abstract largescale photographies in the series of Hemogramas and Lactogramas have been added without the help of the camera. Instead, Fontcuberta produced negatives by dripping blood or milk on transparent glass plates. With the aim to be as ”objective” as possible, the series is researching the photographic picture as a trail, and blood is used as a metaphoric reference to the act of love, to birth and death, sorrow and passion, heritage and identity. 

Joan Fontcuberta; Landskrona Museum
Joan Fontcuberta; Landskrona Museum