Sou Vai Keng and Martin Zeller

Since 2012 Sou Vai Keng and Martin Zeller have developed their substantial work series New Gardens with its three parts “Angelus Novus,” “Diana,” and “Fire and Earth.” Both the overarching title and the individual titles make reference to antiquity, mythology, religious history or philosophy… In New Gardens Martin Zeller pushes the borders of photography towards the thin line where nature (appearance) itself crosses into painting. Consequently the series can be considered to be an examination of the terms “the beauty of nature” and “the beauty of art,” which have marked the discourse of aesthetics up until today… In the poems and texts by Sou Vai Keng, Martin Zeller found the artistic counterpart to his photo art conception of New Gardens. Only through the texts does the overall concept become complete and do the dimensions of meaning within the three parts of the series make sense…

For New Gardens Sou Vai Keng and Martin Zeller focused on the question with which method they could record the patina, central subject to their work, and how to make the unveiled stories “readable.”… Time, progress, history, and the lost paradise are also key phrases in the ninth historico-philosophical essay by Walter Benjamin, which he later on termed “Angelus Novus.” The first chapter of New Gardens can therefore be regarded as reminiscent of the “spiritus rector” of both artists.

-from Barbara Straka “One key opens all: An approach to New Gardens by Sou Vai Keng and Martin Zeller.”

A pdf of the exhibition catalog is below. Use the icons in the upper right hand corner to enlarge and/or to pop-out and download.