Gerhes, Gábor: Finding the 'T' (2002)

In the age of the “dictatorship of images” Gábor Gerhes found the appropriate form of imaging in the realm of carefully planned staged photographs. Imposing at first glance, aesthetically pleasing and concise as a poster, in terms of their meaning, his photographs are puzzling, humorous and at the same time rather unsettling. Gerhes’ photo series – started at the end of the 1990s – makes diverse characters, objects, gestures, and motifs share the same image space, which at first glance seem like an incompatible combination – like a graphic puzzle in a magazine –, but suggest the presence of some hidden meaning that brings all the parts together. The works of Gerhes pose questions about how images are read and interpreted, and inspect the relationship of image and text, all the while expecting active participation from the viewer. “Finding the T” could be a successor to the 1999 piece “Planting the Letter T”. The earlier image depicts the artist in the process of digging a hole in the ground for a large wooden object in the form of the letter T – like any hardworking farmer would. The later image shows the artist and a companion, who – dressed in detective trench coats – discover the T that had developed roots in the ground, but is noticeably smaller than the one planted and the environment is also obviously different. So what could have happened in the meantime? Gerhes takes on various costumes and roles for the sake of his images as well as in his personal life, and the “contemporary artist” is only one of them. K.Sz.