Mark
A Shadow in the Shape of a House
2021

A Shadow in the Shape of a House is the visual and textual outcome of a three-week-long self experiment, spent in total isolation in the uninhabited house right opposite of my childhood home. Secluded from any possible distraction through people or media, I began to see behind two different façades: the architectural one of the house I had before my eyes for many years while growing up in a small town in the mountains of Tyrol and my own social façade as a person, unwittingly formed by cultural and societal influences and continuously evolving, even more drastically so ever since I went to live abroad.
As a peculiar and withdrawn neighbour to my own family, I explored the history of this particular house through the traces left behind by its former residents, as well as new personal conceptions and desires stemming from a state of autonomy and an unfamiliar perspective on a familiar context.

The main work is a collection of photographs and texts - fragmented reflections on the reasons and findings of this experience.

The first time presented as an installation of a series of 121 letter cards, each one holding an image in the front and a text in the back, I invited my audience to pick a single card which they would then address to their future selfs. In a provided space resembling a voting booth, people could take a solitary moment of contemplation to write a personal note to themselves. I collected these letters and vowed to post them one year after they had been written.

The cards were not replaced once they were taken. Therefore, the installation changed drastically over the course of four days.
By some persons deliberately leaving their letters unsealed and thus allowing me to read and respond to them, A Shadow in the Shape of a House has gained a second chapter, which I evolved in the performative installation Reading and Writing.

A Shadow in the Shape of a House has been exhibited at gnration, Braga as part of Encontros da Imagem 2022 and at Fotohof, Salzburg as part of the FOTOHOF Calling 2022.
It was published in TEMA Magazine #7 and as a finalist of the Photoworks Graduate Issue #13.


A Shadow in the Shape of a House
2021

A Shadow in the Shape of a House is the visual and textual outcome of a three-week-long self experiment, spent in total isolation in the uninhabited house right opposite of my childhood home. Secluded from any possible distraction through people or media, I began to see behind two different façades: the architectural one of the house I had before my eyes for many years while growing up in a small town in the mountains of Tyrol and my own social façade as a person, unwittingly formed by cultural and societal influences and continuously evolving, even more drastically so ever since I went to live abroad.
As a peculiar and withdrawn neighbour to my own family, I explored the history of this particular house through the traces left behind by its former residents, as well as new personal conceptions and desires stemming from a state of autonomy and an unfamiliar perspective on a familiar context.

The main work is a collection of photographs and texts - fragmented reflections on the reasons and findings of this experience.  

The first time presented as an installation of a series of 121 letter cards, each one holding an image in the front and a text in the back, I invited my audience to pick a single card which they would then address to their future selfs. In a provided space resembling a voting booth, people could take a solitary moment of contemplation to write a personal note to themselves. I collected these letters and vowed to post them one year after they had been written.

The cards were not replaced once they were taken. Therefore, the installation changed drastically over the course of four days.
By some persons deliberately leaving their letters unsealed and thus allowing me to read and respond to them, A Shadow in the Shape of a House has gained a second chapter, which I evolved in the performative installation Reading and Writing.

A Shadow in the Shape of a House has been exhibited at gnration, Braga as part of Encontros da Imagem 2022 and at Fotohof, Salzburg as part of the FOTOHOF Calling 2022.
It was published in TEMA Magazine #7 and as a finalist of the Photoworks Graduate Issue #13.


COPYRIGHT © 2024 Lena Holzer. All Rights Reserved
COPYRIGHT © 2024 Lena Holzer. All Rights Reserved