liegen lassen

In the Chauvet caves in France, some of the oldest paintings known to humans exist. Drawn with charcoal, they depict images of life 30,000 years ago. Charcoal occurs naturally in the world as dead plant matter is compressed, without access to oxygen, until it becomes carbon. Once created, the substance can remain in nature indefinitely. With nothing that can eat or decompose it, the main thing which can destroy coal is exposure to heat and air, producing fire and then ash. So, for the most part it stays, serving as a means of warmth and picture making in the present and stretching into the future as a series of artifacts.
Ulrike Mohr carbonizes bits of trees and everyday objects, transforming their substance while preserving their forms, suspending them in time. Arranged like relics in a museum, they seem to suggest origins in antiquity yet they are pieces of the present, prepared for the future when they will become history. Using powdered charcoal, painted on human bodies, in this collaborative installation, Anna Zakelj created images of the traces those bodies left behind. Although large parts of the human form do not appear, particular details remain with photocopier exactness. The pattern of skin is perfectly stamped leaving a momentary impression which has the possibility to remain eternal.