in It’s Human nature ? - Kunstverein Harburger Bahnof, Harburg
Galvanized steel, UV-Print on steel, lead, plaster board, 3D air-mesh fabric, neon light, 2023
The installation Double Exposure explores how medical, scientific, and cultural knowledge have shaped a particular conception of the body. The title of the work refers to a photographic process in which film is exposed twice to create a superimposition effect. Chabal transfers this technique to steel and lead. Through intensive polishing the material becomes a mirror of the surrounding bodies, which are silhouetted. A UV print of an X-ray image of Francis Bacon’s Painting (1946), a protective medical mask made of lead, or the closure of a drain further think the figure of doubling within the installation. Chabal creates a space that shows more than it hides, that makes the boundaries of inside and outside permeable. As an approximation and abstraction of the human body, Chabal aims at processes of exposure and reflection to explore its indeterminacy, contradictions and fragility.
Text by Tobias Peper