„Leib und Seele”
2025,
Holz, Acryl,
26 x 18 x 4
„facing forward”
2026,
Holz, Acryl
40 x 19 x 6
Manoush Assefjah
Sculpture and photography encounter one another in these works through a continuous process of removal and reapplication. Layer upon layer, traces emerge that do not merely remain on the surface but become deeply inscribed into the material. What disappears and what comes into being anew always carries what came before within it. Every transformation endures as a quiet memory and becomes part of an ongoing process of change.
Grain, inclusions, and clouding run through the photographic layer and intertwine with it. In this way, transitions emerge in which it is no longer clear whether a trace belongs to the stone, the wood, or the image. The photograph seems to seep into the material, while the material itself simultaneously begins to take on an image-like quality. The surface becomes a place where material and image no longer stand in opposition but instead absorb and transform one another.
The working process follows no fixed endpoint. Rather, each sculpture develops through a recurring interplay of appearance and disappearance. With every new layer, the relationship between material and photographic trace shifts. Removal is just as significant as addition, both gestures shape the work equally.
Through this subtle connection, perception begins to shift. The eye searches for stability within the forms, yet continually moves beyond them. Sharpness and blur, foreground and background, material and image lose their fixed distinctions. What emerges is a state of inbetweenness, a quiet, continuous unfolding of appearance and disappearance.
Within this intermediate space, the boundaries between materials become permeable. The works invite the viewer to slow their gaze and follow the subtle transformations of their surfaces. The visible and the concealed, memory and the present enter into a silent dialogue that resists any definitive resolution.
