Raphael Hefti

 Installation view, Fluxia, Milano 

Raphael Hefti, Lycopodium, 2011, Photograms on photographic color paper using the gently burning spores of the mossplant Lycopdium, dimensions 100 x 160 cm, unique copies  


"Raphael Hefti is an alchimist in his own right, he forms steel bars fragile as glas, lightens up whole mountain valleys or grows mushrooms on buckets in the exhibition space. His faszination and in- terest in the aesthetic potential of chemical processes and technical procedures is also the starting point for his work on view at Kunsthalle. In memory to Phlogiston (2010/11) and Lycopodiumprints (2010/11) are large format black and white and color photograms which have been exposed with the spores of the Lycopodium plant. The fine pored powder, which is known as medicine in Homeopa- thie and because of his high inflammability was called „witch craft xxx“ in the Middle Age , is used by Hefti as the light source of his images. The composition is foremost an accidental one – similar to the methods used in Drip or Action paintings in American Expressionism or Andy Warhols re- ference to these (Piss Paintings, 1977-78) – and the image composition is based on the immediacy of the material’s touch on the image carrier, every trace are to be visible. On the black and white photograms the light leaves surprisingly fine structures and layers, the color prints depict a spectre of lucid colors with unexpected depth." Kunsthalle Basel, 2011