The characterization of Hempel’s work as theatrical induces us to read his installations as stage scenery, as a failed illusion that reveals the means by which it is created, as a fictional, counterfeit, imitative, nonorganic and temporary surrounding. In his works Hempel creates a transition from figure to the space of the scenery, a transition already noted by Claire Moulene in a critical review of his first retrospective: “Despite this mix of materials, numerous Hempel works are distinguished by their flatness, inviting viewers to walk around them only to have any illusion, or narrative, vanish when they turn the corner to discover all is décor.”[1]
The context of the exhibition makes it possible to pay particular regard to the place occupied by photography in Hempel’s sculptural hybrid. He deprives photographed images of their status as being representative and turns them into presences in a three-dimensional space, into something that is out of place, something that has eluded definition, that hasn’t been properly archived and buried. Hempel’s presences are ghostly, demonic. Characterization of his works as indicating the return of the repressed emphasizes the power they have to awaken anxiety in the viewers, despite exposing their own means of expression and dictating an experience of demystification.

Courtesy the artist and Stuart Shave/Modern Art Gallery, London

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[1] Moulene, Claire, Lothar Hempel, ArtForum, Summer, p. 284.

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