Kunstverein in Hamburg

Even the most unassuming household object is imbued with emotional significance, binding it to the lives of those who use it. This connection extends beyond the object's function: habit, trauma, fantasy, desire, or memory become embedded, and the cold surfaces of a toaster or a cutting board transform, becoming abstract and fossilizing over time, evolving from mere possession into something else. Through the loss of its utility, there exists the potential for an accumulation of meaning, specificity, and essence – a broken chair can signify more than a new one.

The exhibition brings together works by Josef Bauer, Tim Hardy, Angelique Heidler, Martin Laborde, Luna Mahoux, Marietta Mavrokordatou, Troy Montez Mitchie, Nicolai Olesen and Jasia Rabiej, Matt Gess with Désirée Nakouzi De Monte, and Andrea Parenti of the Collezione Nancy Delroi. The photographic image serves as a starting point for diverse visual strategies and artistic approaches. Between fashion photography and archival material, the supposed truthfulness of photography begins to crumble and unfold into layers of situated fantasies. In this field of tension, memory and desire become indistinguishable, while absence transforms into a form of emotional closeness. The exhibition is part of the chess club's program as Project space-in-Residence at Kunstverein in Hamburg.

Sample Question is Nina Porter's first institutional solo exhibition and features new works commissioned by the Kunstverein on the occasion of the 9th Triennial of Photography: Alliance, Infinity, Love – in the Face of the Other. The artist's most recent works reconstruct the relational network of camera, subject, and image, distributing the focal points across their entire network. In addition to a series of photographs, the work exhibits sculptural characteristics, even though the works are not oriented towards a result or a process, but rather towards the observation of fleeting phenomena, such as the gaps between seeing and perceiving. The material components of Porter's practice behave like elements of an exchange, moving towards an immaterial space by simultaneously indexing time and highlighting the fullness of a moment and all that it can potentially contain.

Sample Question ist die erste institutionelle Einzelausstellung von Nina Porter und umfasst neue Werke, die vom Kunstverein anlässlich der 9. Triennale der Photographie: Alliance, Infinity, Love – in the Face of the Other in Auftrag gegeben wurden. Die jüngsten Arbeiten der Künstlerin rekonstruieren das Beziehungsgeflecht von Kamera, Motiv und Bild und verteilen die Schwerpunkte über deren gesamtes Netzwerk. Neben einer Reihe von Fotografien weist das Werk skulpturale Merkmale auf, auch wenn die Arbeiten weder auf ein Ergebnis noch einen Prozess ausgerichtet sind, sondern vielmehr auf die Beobachtung flüchtiger Phänomene, beispielsweise die Lücken zwischen Sehen und Wahrnehmen. Die materiellen Komponenten von Porters Praxis verhalten sich wie Elemente eines Austauschs, die sich auf einen immateriellen Raum zubewegen, indem sie zugleich Zeit indizieren und die Fülle eines Augenblicks hervorheben und all das, was er potenziell enthalten kann.