The chilean photo theorist Ronald Kay sees photography as a geological event, a rupture in the flow of time that physically inscribes itself on the photographic surface. Tino Kukulies‘ floating stone seems to confirm this: The solidification of the lava solidifies the appearance of the volcanic rock, which the artist reproduces as an oversized model with the help of a 3D scan. This is created from a layering of photographic data, with which the photograph is expanded in a first significant step from the surface to the body. However, this body does not stand still, but rotates around its own axis in the grazing light. Thus, in the second step, this body becomes a performative photograph that reflects and models the light instead of capturing it. This continuous transformation of its appearance shifts our perception, in which the vulcanite eludes any snapshot. At this moment, Kay‘s metaphor turns around. Time is once again set in motion, creating an infinite number of new, ephemeral images.

Text by Matthias Pfaller