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In his series of Blackboards Goldbach has taken photographs of the chalkboards in various German University rooms in which intellectuals such as Theodor A. Adorno, Martin Heidegger and Carl Friedrich Gauß once taught. The blackboards rubbed blank show only traces of past writings: offering a shadow of the scholarly history they witnessed. The images are not only beautiful representations of an historical object but also raise awareness of the history of intellectual thought, academia and the dissemination of ideas.
Micrographs is a series of drawings in which Goldbach has meticulously transcribed in pencil on paper various historical texts (from 19th century travel accounts and philosophical writings). Up to almost 2 metres in size but containing the tiniest legible hand writing conceivable these works are a demonstration of extreme artistic labour – intriguing, beautiful and thought provoking. Amongst others the series includes Alexander von Humboldt’s travels through South America and The Critique of Pure Reason by Imanuel Kant.
This fully illustrated 40 page catalogue includes an introductory article by Volker Rattemeyer – Director of Museum Wiesbaden. Rattemeyer says of Goldbach’s works “Visual images and language compete with one another, yet both are means of acquiring knowledge and incorporating it into tradition”.
Goldbach was born in 1978 in Cologne, Germany, where he lives and works. He studied Art History, Sociology and Philosophy at Cologne University and holds an assistant professorship in photography at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne.In 2008 he was awarded the Vordemberge-Gildewart Scholarship
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