A Different Perception Of The Urban Landscape

Edge of Humanity Magazine

6 hours ago

Photographer Johannes Christopher Gérard is an Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Urban Structures & Patterns ’. To see Johannes’ body of work, click on any photograph.

To create urban worlds where space, objects, and subjects reappear in front of the protagonist’s eyes and mind, transforming a different and new view within the urban landscape.

Patterns, structures and rhythms forming the urban environments permanently available, yet becoming invisible many times in the middle of an everyday urban hasty life and routine. Therefore, I paid close attention to the subtle and sincere details within urban environments we create or live in. My interpretations are experiments integrated at the end through alternating observations and analyzes of our visible urban environments and of human urban creations.

I am interested in isolating these subjects respectively objects, cataloging them, analyzing them and studying them in detail. Deepening the context in which they find themselves, how they differ from one city to another, neighborhoods or communities. How autonomous are the spaces or objects within the city and how they relate to and connect with each other. I want to clear the excess of information and the customary chaos that surrounds these objects, to return to the recognition of basic elements in the urban layout different perception of the world.

However, my personal experiences with chronic mental illness, hearing problems, and other past health issues also play a subtle role in the creation of my works and artistic concepts. Under certain circumstances, the chaotic situations, noises, voices, and visions in my mind can create a temporary space where things behave, act, and interact differently, defying the normal rules of everyday life. My everyday environment becomes a ritual space where dualism and the self-evident aspects of daily life suddenly collapse, are inverted, overlap, and resonate with one another: • presence-absence, • truth-falsehood, • matter-imagination, • perception-hallucination.

The portfolio and project “Urban Structures and Patterns” currently comprises 18 photographic works in black and white in portrait format. None of the works has a specific title, but are named after the portfolio and project, supplemented by a number from 1 to 18.

Each photographic work is divided into three sections: an upper one, a narrow middle one, and a lower one. All three sections within the work show different detailed motifs of objects, architectural fragments and spaces located in urban areas.All three sections of the work depict different, detailed motifs of objects, architectural fragments, and spaces in urban areas. With the exception of two works, the three sections present motifs from at least two and at most three different cities. The creators, builders, users, and passersby—in other words, citizens—of these fragmented objects and spaces do not appear.

The images depict cities such as Berlin (DE), Yerevan (AM), The Hague (NL), Prague (CZ), Milan (IT), Liege (BE), Eberswalde (DE), Tokyo (JP), Kolkata (IN), Dhaka (BD), Quito (EC) and Toronto (CA).

Born in Cologne, Germany. Johannes  works as an interdisciplinary and multimedia artist. The artist lives in The Hague, Netherlands. He was trained at the Applied School for Printing and Graphic Arts) in Cologne, Germany and at the Dun Laogharie School of Art and Design (now IADT) in Dublin from 1977 to 1981. Johannes has lived and worked in various countries in Europe, the Far East, North and South America, West Africa, and Australia. He regularly participates in exhibitions, projects, and video and film festivals in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Far East, Australia, Africa, Central America, and North and South America. Until 2007, he worked primarily in sculpture, painting, and printmaking. In the same year, the artist created his first land art and installation works. Furthermore, photography became one of his primary disciplines. Until 2010 worked as an art educator at various educational institutions in Dublin (IRL), Taipei (TW), and The Hague (NL). In 2014, Johannes began producing his first videos and performances as part of the "Silent Crossing Border" project at the Soulangh Culture Park in Tainan, Taiwan, as part of his collaboration with the dancer Tsai Hsin-Ying (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) and the performance artist Kao Yi (Tainan, Taiwan). From this project on, his work and artistic vision focused on interdisciplinary, multimedia, and collaborative projects. Johannes also regularly conducts joint projects with artists from different cultural backgrounds and disciplines. In 2016, he developed social sculpture projects and workshops with theater educator Denise Dröge (Berlin, Germany). Johannes  further developed this workshop and expanded it into a workshop and project for students and adults at the Nonconformist Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2017. In 2022, the artist participated in the sound project "Acoustic Interiors" by the German sound artist Anne Wellmer in The Hague, Netherlands. Through this project, he began to intensively engage with sound and sound art. Since 2023, has been developing and realizing interdisciplinary projects that involve a significant evolution of his artistic visions and concepts. This includes: More independent projects without artistic collaborations with others. The addition of philosophical reflections and autobiographical elements, as well as reflections on mental health and disability.

His most recent and important interdisciplinary projects include: Empty Times – Empty Spaces, Faber Andorra, La Massana, Andorra; / SOUND + ENVIRONMENT SYMPOSIUM, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; / DESERTERS Project & Exhibition, Oriel Y Bont Gallery, University of South of Wales, Treforest, Pontypridd Campus, Wales, UK / ArtWorks Together, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK /

All images and text © Johannes Christopher Gérard