CHRISTOPH SPEISER
„la serviette de mon père
my father‘s towel“
pentaptych, 2024
silver gelatin prints (13x18cm)
„my father was a very gentle man. and he had his habits, his ways.
as long as i can remember, his towel was in the same place, always proper and soft, always on the left side.
and it‘s been quite a long time that i had taken pictures in their bathroom, maybe because of the beautiful light coming through the old faceted window.
in his late years, when there was a towel on the right hook, next to his, it was either my mother‘s or mine or another sibling‘s towel when we stayed at the house.
when i came to spend a few days i would always remember him saying „i am on the left..“, while i unpacked my toothbrush, cream and shaver.
a few years ago when i came from paris to visit my parents, i remember one day there was this particular reflection. it was so beautiful – beams of light coming through the bathroom window, lighting up his towel and the tiles in a way i had never seen before. so i made a few photographs.
later that same year an aneurysm right next to his heart broke and he barely survived.
he had never been the same after that and he soon required intensive nursing care.
his towel was gone, he would never use this bathroom again, laying in his bed on the upper floor, being washed by my mother or the nurse, like a child.
my father died last year and when i come back to the house now, to visit mother from time to time, i still hang my towel on the right hook. i guess we all do.“
„Nightwalk“, silver gelatin print, 2024, 40x50cm
from a new series „poetry is made at the edge of running water“
ABOUT
Born in Vienna, 1977. Early interest in painting, later photography and video.
Influences from abstract expressionism and surrealism.
Master of fine arts in 2005 (conceptual art), receiving the price of masterclass for a photographic installation and research on Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet), exhibited at betonsalon Vienna.
First experiments with silver gelatin and darkroom techniques.
Extended travels to the far east.
From 2007 to 2012 working as a restaurator of paintings for private collectors and museums in Vienna, then moved to Paris in 2013.
Started working with medium and large format cameras.
From 2018 to 2022 represented by ‘Galerie Agathe Gaillard’ (became ‘La Galerie Rouge’ in 2020)
Participation in collective exhibitions and a solo show presenting black and white photography on the edge of abstraction and painting.
Intensive occupation with the alchemistic aspect of handmade photography, using rare papers for printmaking, creating unique frames for final prints.
objects, mixed media (photography/painting/sculpture)
Solo shows:
2005: Das Büro des Bernardo Soares,
Galerie bétonsalon, Vienna
2006: Memento Mori, Lehargasse, Vienna
2020: KAI 海 , La Galerie Rouge, Paris
2021: COSMOS, Kaffeefabrik, Vienna
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Group shows:
2018: Au soleil,
Galerie Agathe Gaillard, Paris
2019: La passegiata,
Galerie Agathe Gaillard, Paris
Christoph Speiser est né en Autriche, à Vienne en 1977.
Artiste plasticien, diplômé des Beaux Arts de Vienne, dont il obtient le prix masterclass en 2005 il se consacre pendant un temps à l’art conceptuel.
Passionné de peinture et de photographie, il se tourne vers la restauration d’œuvres d’art pour différents musées et s’oriente vers la photographie à l’ancienne, re-découvrant des procédés presque perdus dans le temps. Il travaille exclusivement en argentique – moyen et large formats – sur des papiers rares faits à la main ainsi que sur d’autres supports.
Artiste photographe et plasticien, héritier d’une famille d’artisan, il réalise ses oeuvres en series limitées de la prise de vue à l’encadrement. Christoph Speiser fait de ses photographies des objets uniques, organiques.
Entre poésie et matière, il crée son univers à la fois cosmique et experimental.
PROGRESS
Article by Pauline Lisowski:
http://www.lecorridordelart.com/2021/03/kai-exposition-installation-de-christoph-speiser.html
link to article in 9lives magazine:
Kai 海 : Les abysses
The Japanese word ‚KAI‘ 海 has many different meanings.
It can be referred to the sea or the unknown, to obscurity or infinity.
This series is inspired by this admiration of beauty in ever changing structures – the fluctuating and exquisitely shaped nature of things.
But also by the love for the sea and its fragility.
It focuses on simplicity and complexity, which perhaps helps to to create a short moment of pause in which the intellectually driven perception of imagery might come to a halt.
Preparing my first solo show at the Galerie Rouge in Paris
Opening on 25th of September 2020. Silver gelatin prints in limited edition
