"The Cavern - A Place Of Memory", this is how Albrecht Kunkel describes one aspect of his work.
The viewer actually feels this sensation of memory, a certain uneasyness caused by the space deep in the interior of the earth: the interplay of spaciousness and narrowness, the strange humid atmosphere, the clammy smell, the peculiar natural arcitechture...-
Each memory has its own context. Albrecht Kunkel leaves it up to the viewer to create personal impressions out of conception, image and familiar feeling.
The caverns visited by the artist are made accessible to a certain extent by electric light and secured paths. Despite great deal in definition, the photographs do not have a scientific approach.
Through his work Albrecht Kunkel illustrates his own perception of a world of silence and seclusion, of dimensions unknown. Colors for example no longer exist in a world without light. Only with the help of artificial light sudden shades of subtle color appear.
His photographs convey the impression of a diminishing feeling for dimension and space . Whether the tip of a stone has grown five inches or five feet high is impossible to tell by looking at the photograph. Our conception of time and space does not apply in a place where the growth of a stalagmite by an inch takes 100 years. There are few signs of our world, interruptions of civilisation , such as railings and concrete steps, familiar to the viewer.
In his work in the caverns, Albrecht Kunkel followed the documentary rule of taking advantage of the given cicumstances: The faint sources of light, sporadically installed and rarely used but for the visitors, made it necessary to expose the film up to twenty minutes which is quite diffrent from the common photographic technique, where most often only a split second of exposure time is needed. This present work of Albrecht Kunkel is therefore the very opposite of the priciple of "the decisive moment", when the right instant is clear, even anticipated and captivated by pushing the release button. Pictures taken in caverns on the other hand visualize paradigmatically long time spans. This is how Albrecht Kunkel describes his work. "The time for the picture to fix itself, the exposure time, alternates my perception of the cavern". Experiencing various different perceptions of the same space influences subjective decisions such as choosing the right spot for the camera, the type of filtering of the print and how it will be presented. In this context, the monochrome surfaces of color shown at the exhibition can be described as blown up color excerpts directly related to the cavern pictures. The classic presentation of the silver gelatine prints shown in the catalogue form a striking contrast with the color large formats.
The photographs were taken with a large format camera, thus providing precise details. This approach refers to the art academy in Düsseldorf strongly influenced by Bernd and Hilla Becher. Although the large format camera reproduces an exact picture of the cavern its real effect on the viewer is relative. Our attitude towards this subterranean world usually lacks personal experience - it remains unknown. The impression of a virtual world is enhanced by seclusion, futuristic looking lime sediment and absence of well known elements as a possible reference of contemplation.
Another aspect of caverns is the relation to the very beginning of our civilisation, to the evolution of thought and abstaction: First traces of culture, an early artform like the documentation of knowledge can be found on various rock drawings and engravings. They are proof of early human efford to understand and find suitable explanations for the surrounding world. Albrecht Kunkel documents these finding places.
An earlier series of photographs of aquariums in Europe and the U.S.A. already dealt with the subject of artificiality and technical conversion of nature and reality. Throughout the working process the two opposites "naturalness - artificiality" proved to be a difficult theme. The impression of an artificial world was dominant, while the technical conversion rendered a perfectly natural looking copy of the artificial habitat.
In his work about caverns Albrecht Kunkel deals again with this subject matter, intentionally pointing out recent human interference. To show technical assets of modern civilisation actually enhances the impression of an authentic place thus confirming the photograph as a credible document of an existing space.
Surprise, confusion and energy are the effects of the tension created by the opposites of naturalness and artificiality. After all, as a viewer we are not able to distinguish whether the caverns in the photographs are artificial or not- despite many metaphorical expressions of caverns in our language and Platon´s famous parable of the cavern.
