Flush // Simon Ringelhan

In the organizer's words:

Simon Ringelhan (*1995 Wilhelmshaven) lives and works in Hamburg. He studied from 2017 to 2023 at the Folkwang University in Essen and since 2024 at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg in the class of Jeanne Faust /Sung Tieu, specializing in time-related media.

He strives for works that are detached from the classic photogram, yet can not only be experienced visually, but also have a haptic and temporal dimension. Photography is to be understood as a profoundly technical, yet at the same time poetic-philosophical
A possibility to examine genre and material, to make the invisible visible and to interweave different temporal dimensions. Constantly searching for traces of presence and alternative forms of
forms of depictability, of representation.

There is one night a year when all the conditions for a suitable photograph come together. On this night, exactly 13 pictures are taken on large-format negatives - directly in the water.

The number 13 refers to the phases of the moon in a year, as the new moon is also one of the decisive factors: the highest tide falls around midnight on this night, it is slightly cloudy, there is a little wind and the water temperature is at least five degrees.

A single photograph is selected from this series to represent the respective year and is shown in the exhibition. In the background, a growing catalog of water views is thus created - a selection that has been compiled over the years and is conceived as an ongoing series. The resulting pictures are very subtle in their appearance. Their format also demands an approach: the viewer is invited to step closer in order to grasp what is depicted.
to grasp what is depicted. This work is an attempt to explore the subtle, almost immaterial characteristics of water portraits.

The large-format photogram, on the other hand, makes an impact through its expansive presence. The striking form of a meander lends it a certain legibility, which is further enhanced by the ornamental design. The shape of the meander, as a symbol of infinity and as a winding, straying surface, refers to the flowing character of a stream that moves uninterruptedly.
character of a stream that moves ceaselessly through time.

The exhibition Flush thus thematizes the constantly changing surface of water and its cultural-historical and metaphysical dimension. The photographic means are understood here as a tool to transform this actually intangible form into an image.