Jakob Mattner – Second Planet

Jakob Mattner creates works of light. His artistic goal is the transformation of light between darkness and brightness, the Twilight as one of his most important work series is titled. Large-format light installations fall into a new creative phase and cast vibrating, analogue reflections on a projection foil that look like interstellar nebulae or light reflections of water.

Mattner’s new works are shown in the spacious showrooms at the Kunst Lager Haas. The works on paper also take up the motif of light. Large-format pictures and smaller works such as Fern I or Nettle show plants that stretch out towards the light and transform light into matter through photosynthesis or that are set in aureoles. In green, silver and gold they stand in front of a black background.

Their vaguely outlined forms and the dark colours of the pictures are reminiscent of frottages or photographic negatives. In fact, the artist – who sees himself as the camera – has placed plants on the shellac-primed handmade papers, which take shape in the sinking paint mist. With this technique, the works are like “photographs before photography”. The motifs are in a sense caught naturally – just as the light inscribed itself almost naturally on early light-sensitive plates. Blue green works like Reflection, on the other hand, function as fragments of memory.

The new installation Second Planet 2021, which is shown in one exhibition room, projects interstellar landscapes and contrasts and combines the large format with the small-scale, fine vibrations on the film.