Eva Bachmann

MFA installation

Eva Bachmann

The exhibition centres around the universal idea of home, migration and transcultural identity by looking at architecture, language and personal collections. It comprises a concertina book Haus (Altenfurt), a sound piece Doppelgänger, Home, an immersive installation, a series of paintings called Colour-Coded /Tower Blocks and Mismatched (Wall Tiles II), a PVC print mounted on plywood.

The work evolved following my receipt of the Clare Winston Award in 2022, which provided me with the opportunity to travel with my sister to central European countries, which shaped my identity.

Slade School of Art: MFA Graduation Show 2023

Eva Bachmann

I am pleased to invite you to my MFA graduation show at the Slade School of Arts, UCL, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT.

The private view is on Friday, 9th June from 6 – 9 pm.

I will be showing a lens-based installation, book art and paintings, that touch on cross-cultural identity, memories, sense of place & displacement, similarities and subtle changes found in language and architecture.

Colour-Coded, from the series tower blocks, 2023, Watercolour, 19 x 30 cm

Barbican Arts Trust: Squeeze - Homelands

Eva Bachmann

The group show Squeeze showcased the work of students from the final year of MA/MFA Fine Art Media at the Slade.

The tunnel book Homelands made of eleven individual photographic panels represents locations from different countries that I once called my home. With its three-dimensional quality, the book simulates multiple interpretations of my cross-cultural identity.

Although each panel represents a different place, overall, they create one image –of what I called home.

Slade School of Art: Interim Show 2022 - How To Fit In

Eva Bachmann

The show will be open to the public:

Thursday 6 October - Tuesday 11 October 2022

weekdays 9:30am - 8:30pm, weekends 9:30am – 6:30pm

Slade School of Fine Art UCL, Gower Street London WC1E 6BT

more info here: Slade Interim Show 2022

The installation How to Fit In, comprised of photography, household objects and a pencil writing of wrongly interpreted proverbs, is a tongue-in-cheek commentary from an outsider’s perspective on the awkward situations when ‘tangled up in rhetorical footwork’. The deadpan images of resourceful yet not-so-successful repair hacks serve as a visual analogy to language slippages and cultural dilemmas when trying to fit in.

The installation developed as a progression of attempting to express concepts of displacement. Here, I compared the haphazard structures of improvised repair jobs with the clumsy mistakes of an outsider who is trying to belong by making use of local proverbs and getting them almost yet not quite right.

The selection of wrongly interpreted proverbs was based on mistakes I previously made or observed by other non-English speakers. For example:
‘Nearly is not good enough’, instead of ‘Almost is not good enough’, or ‘It’s not rock science’ instead of ‘It’s not rocket science’.
I used a pencil to write the proverbs on the wall to signify the temporality of language, as it is constantly evolving and changing. Just as the pencil can be erased, the language can be also corrected. Additionally, the pencil is also the preferred writing tool on the construction site for marking out various building processes.

Slade & Digital Anthropology Exhibition: 52%25%20 Spiritual - Cycling Flaneuse

Eva Bachmann

52%25%20 Spiritual is an online exhibition of work arising from collaboration between staff and students at the Slade School of Fine Art and Digital Anthropology, UCL.
It arose from discussions between Patrick White (Slade) and the creators of the Museum of Data: Tone Walford, Haidy Geismar (both UCL Anthropology), and Joel Gethin Lewis (CCI @ UAL Camberwell), with thanks also to Jane Davies and Alex Krook (UCL Digital Anthropology MSc).

Participants: Alex Krook, Bindu Mehra, Eva Bachmann, Eva Popovic, Funa Ye, Haidy Geismar, Ilona Balaga, Jane Davies, Jesse Giordano, Julian Kowal, Kate Davis, Kate Rogers, Pauline Lemaire, Sana Iqbal, Shi Yun Teo, Tone Walford.

Site was designed by Funa Ye
Exhibition link: 52%25%20 Spiritual

The Cycling Flaneuse video unites Bachmann’s visual and sound documentation of the urban landscape and Lemaire’s use of digital tools to recreate the digital exploration of London. For this project, Bachmann focussed on her cycling route to university and depicted ten landmarks that she photographed and sound recorded ten times. There are two versions: the first one includes all 100 photos and 100 recordings, and the second one is an 'audio-visual patchwork', where Lemaire picked her preferred three pictures and sound recordings and assembled them into this video, which meshes the gaze of both Bachmann and Lemaire cast on the city.

Lemaire has worked already on the subjectivity of itineraries and how they each represent some form of portrait of a neighbourhood, or a space. By recording the image and sound, Bachmann creates a relationship with each landmark, as it becomes something more than an incidental milestone on her commute.

Repetition plays a considerable part in Bachmann’s work processes. Here, she tends to reflect on her fixation to return to the same place time and again and record the subtle differences that occurred in the meantime. By doing so, she noticed how the sound of a particular landmark added an extra layer to the authenticity of the place. The act of stopping and consciously taking time to listen to a place transcended the mundane commuting into a mindful act. Even though the sound is fleeting, after stopping at a landmark on more occasions, she started to associate the specific sound with the characteristics of that place.
Eva Bachmann & Pauline Lemaire

Wordling: Lambing Season - In-Between

Eva Bachmann

The group show Lambing Season showcased work from students currently studying in their first year MFA Media at the Slade.
Curated by Frederika Dalwood and Isabelle Pead.

In the work In-Between, I used the slightly awkward places of the built environment as a visual analogy to compare the feeling of displacement, or to the slippages that occur when switching between different languages.

UCL Art Gallery: Spineless Wonders - Plain

Eva Bachmann

The Small Press Project invites you to SPIIIIINELESS , an exhibition of bookworks made by Slade students and staff.

I contributed with my self-published book Plain.

Plain, self-published book, 30 x 30 cm, linen cover 2020

Initiated in 2015 by Printmaking and Photography staff at the Slade School of Fine Art and the UCL Art Librarian, the Small Press Project utilises printed matter from the UCL Special Collections Small Press Collections - one of the most significant collections of independently published magazines, newspapers and pamphlets in the world.

Many of these works reflect the social, political and cultural context of printing and publishing dating from the mid 19th Century to the present day and exhibit the shifts in print culture as well as the evolution and development of the artist’s book as a method of making. Each year the project produces a collaborative publication responding to changing themes selected by students and staff.

This year the project was part of the Spineless Wonders programme, a 3-day series of events held throughout the academic year 2021/22 presenting research on small press publications, raising questions for contemporary and future works through returning to early histories of word and image.

Phtotofusion: Salon 2021- A Slither of a Lockdown Sky

Eva Bachmann

SALON/21 is our annual member’s show at Photofusion and to celebrate our 30th anniversary, we’ve decided to make it extra special this year. We’ve got Emma Bowkett and Zelda Cheatle as our selectors, as well as, Gina Glover and Geof Rayner selecting the winners of the first Glover Rayner prize. The last year has been difficult for us all in so many different ways but we want to put that past us, celebrate our members and the work made throughout the pandemic.”

A Slither from the Lockdown Sky 2020, 22 x 8

In 2020, a few days into the first lockdown, I started to photograph my window view, the sky and the rooftop of the building across the road. Every day, I followed the same frame and soon this repetitive process became part of my daily routine. I noticed how the recurrence of the seemingly monotonous view resonated with my distorted perception of time.
In this digital photo montage, the skies were added chronologically, each day representing one slither. I cropped each image, ending up with merely a slither of a sky. Each of the three UK lockdowns that occurred between March 2020 and May 2021 is represented with two collages.

By arranging the skies next to each other, a seemingly random patchwork of various hues of blues, browns, greys and pinks emerges. It resonates with the notion that although on the surface, life may appear dreary, it is constantly changing, even if ever so subtly.
Even though these skies depict my personal view, nevertheless, I am hoping that the work may resonate on a larger scale, representing the passing of time, a message of hope, reminding us of life’s continuity and its perpetual change.

My Window View: One Photo a Day

Eva Bachmann
31 Days 1st April - 1st May 2020, 31 frames

31 Days 1st April - 1st May 2020, 31 frames

31 Days 1st April - 1st May 2020, 31 frames

31 Days 1st April - 1st May 2020, 31 frames

Since the lockdown, the window took on a symbolic role in our collective experience. Isolated, people started to use the window as a means to communicate with the outside world, being it by singing, drawing a rainbow of hope, cheering and clapping the key workers, or simply looking out.

A few days into the isolation, I started to photograph my window view, a cherry tree about to blossom and a row of terraced houses across the road. Every day, I followed the same frame and soon this repetitive process became part of my daily routine.

I noticed, how the recurrence of the seemingly monotonous view resonates with my distorted perception of time. Time is a strange concept; for me, it seems as though we had never so much of it, yet at the same time, it appears to pass so much faster.
This project is about a message of hope, reminding us of life’s continuity, and its perpetual change.

31 Days 1st April - 1st May 2020, 43 frames

31 Days 1st April - 1st May 2020, 43 frames

Festival of Print 2019 - Vestige

Eva Bachmann

As part of the Festival of Printing organized by The East London Printmakers, I showed the series Vestige.

The work Vestige won the Printmakers’ Council Prize.

With the series Vestige, I was attempting to visually convey the notion of memory through trace. Experimenting with photographic and printmaking processes, lead me to fuse them into one print, where I combine photopolymer etching with blind embossing. The chimney breast becomes an imprint, a trace, a ghostly remnant/ reminder of the buildings’ past.

Based on the indexical relationship of blind embossing and trace, I called the work Vestige, which means a trace or residue of something that is disappearing or no longer exists.

East London Printmakers
Printmakers Council

Espacio Gallery: Time Warp - Distorted Memory

Eva Bachmann

The group show Time Warp showcases the work of eleven artists interpreting imaginative and metaphorical boundaries, concerning the twisting and distortion of time and space, using painting, photography, printing and ceramics.

Opening reception on
Thursday 15th November 6 – 10 pm
at the Espacio Gallery 
159 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG

The series Distorted Memory is an amalgam of specific London locations photographed 20 years apart. Just as memory appears to be experienced on an individual level, projecting a distorted reconstruction of the past, in this work my intent is to merge the past with the present, creating a fusion between the two. Instead of offering a straightforward representation, the resulting image is a construct of then and now, revealing and concealing layers of time with fragments referencing present structures.

Unsurprisingly, most of the buildings photographed 20 years ago, have long gone by now. They are replaced by new-builds or construction sites. The series is also a social commentary on the ruthless expansion of the property market, where according to a UK law, certain new-builds are exempt from paying the VAT making it financially more viable to demolish an old building and replace it with homogeneous, prefab apartments.

Historic England: Immortalise - Friction Match

Eva Bachmann

Historic England launched an open call competition as part of their ‘Immortalise Season’. The aim was “to encourage new thinking around the production, use and appearance of monuments and memorials in public life.”

Stamatis Zografos, Uli Gamper and Eva Bachmann worked on a collaborative project to commemorate John Walker, the inventor of the friction match. The installation was displayed with other 9 finalists at Historic England’s Immortalise Season.

written by Stamatis Zografos

written by Stamatis Zografos

The matchbox installation

The matchbox installation comprises an ephemeral and participatory method of commemoration that celebrates Walker and his invention truly, and places Stockton-on-Tees on the map. Considering that Walker’s identity is not certain and in order to commemorate the ambiguity behind his identity, an image of him is ‘invented’. This image is formed when matchboxes, operating like pixels, are placed the one next to the other in the right sequence. The image has layers thus depth. This relates to the three-dimensionality of memory, as memory is produced and preserved in space. The lower the layer is the more faded/distant the image/memory. The visitors are asked to take away a (free) matchbox thus de-assemble the image until it disappears. This is the end of the installation but not the end of Walker’s commemoration. His memory is spread out randomly in the city through the matchbox cover design.

Matchbox Installation. Image by Historic England

Matchbox Installation. Image by Historic England

The matchbox performance

A performative and participatory method of commemoration for John Walker and his invention was also introduced. Re-appropriating Hans Christian Andersen’s famous short story The Little Match Girl, our performer gave away (free) matchboxes to clueless passers-by until Walker’s image dissolves. The performer engaged with the public and informed them about Walker and his invention. The performance took place by the gate to Bow Quarter in Bow, London. This building was originally the Bryant and May match factory. It was also the site of the Match Girl’s Strike in 1888 led by Annie Besant. The edited film has neither a beginning nor an end, and it is on a constant loop. This circular narrative respects fire’s own development in time, from life to death to eternal return.

photographs taken during the performance

Afterthoughts

The ephemeral nature of John Walker’s commemoration relates to the quick burning of matches. The random matchbox distribution through performance and public participation reflects fire’s random proliferation in the urban landscape since the friction match was invented. The method of commemorating John Walker through the distribution of matchboxes is inspired by the subliminal power of matchbox cover design that was historically used as a tool for propaganda and communication (a tool widely used during the World Wars and in Communist countries).

Credits:
Raymond Peters (as John Walker)
performance by Barbara Gamper (www.barbaragamper.com)

Immortalised Logo RGB.jpg

Immortalised: the people loved, left and lost in our landscape

A free exhibition at the Workshop, Lambeth, London

30 August – 16 September 2018

For millennia, we have celebrated and mourned, marked and memorialised. Through our culture, places, stories and rituals we pass down what matters to us.

It is how we make people immortal.

But who decides who and how we remember?

Immortalised explores the ways people and events have been commemorated in England, by the statues, the plaques, shrines and murals that mark heroic, quirky, inspirational and challenging lives. But while some people are heralded, others are unrepresented: women, the working classes and people of colour are much less likely to have a place on the plinth.

An immersive exhibition, Immortalised invites you to enter four giant monuments that hold the key to our memorial past and future. From a Trafalgar Square lion to the Brighton Peace ‘Angel,’ to the boots on the contested statue of Edward Colson in Bristol, these will each explore how, why and who we remember, from the well-loved and famous, to the lost local hero.

Immortalised also reviews the challenging histories of some of those celebrated, and looks at how we might immortalise in the future, long after we are gone and perhaps, forgotten.

Open:

30 August until 16 September 2018
Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm

Location:

The Workshop, 26 Lambeth High Street, Lambeth, London SE1 7AG

Bath Photography Festival: Delving Into Distant Memories

Eva Bachmann

Delving Into Distant Memories series questions the notion of displacement, our sense of belonging and the ambiguity of our past experience. I understand memory as an organic thought process, shifting and adapting to our formed world-view.

The title refers to my experience of the transitional state when waking, when a vivid dream feels credible, almost tangible. This unsettling feeling, leaves me pondering whether these imagined places were ever part of my real experience or whether they were merely a generic representation of our collective memory?

Photofusion: London Creative Network

Eva Bachmann

Reliefs 2017/18
scanned prints from 4x5 negatives

Being part of London Creative Network has enabled me to learn operating a large format camera, specifically for my work ‘Reliefs’, photographs of chimney breasts revealed on London's facades.
Rather than seeing them as a straight forward document of an architectural feature, I see them as sculptural reliefs.

At Photofusion I received a bespoke tuition tailored to my project. During the programme, I learnt how to use the camera and how to develop and scan the negatives. The final stage was about printing the 4x5 negatives.

Rushmure Rd E5 2017/18
scanned print from 4x5 negative

Mission Grove I E17 2017/18 scanned print from 4x5 negative

Mission Grove I E17 2017/18
scanned print from 4x5 negative

 Working with a large format camera helps me to slow down. It is an antidote to the current trend, where taking photos has become accessible to almost everyone.

I compare working with the large format to photographic mindfulness. It forces me to think, contemplate and focus, physically engage with the subject. It draws me in. I get absorbed, physically and emotionally invested in the process of making. It strengthens the conviction of my intention and the relevance of what I shoot. Each photograph takes about half an hour to set up, and it reinforces my commitment to the subject.

Although the method is laborious, costly and lengthy, ultimately it is highly rewarding: The charm of the alchemic printing process keeps me in suspense as the image resurfaces. It is impossible to reproduce the finely-grained film texture and all the details in a digital format.
London Creative Network

Galerie Sehnsucht: The Time Machine - Railway Arches

Eva Bachmann
Andre St, Railway Arches, 2014, 40x 60 cm, limited edition 1/7 giclee print 

Andre St, Railway Arches, 2014, 40x 60 cm, limited edition 1/7 giclee print 

Tucked away from the busy streets of Hackney (London), I stumbled upon Andre Street, a small passage lined with railway arches. The signage and the textured layers of overlapping paint reveal what is happening behind the closed doors when open for business - most of the arches are converted into car mechanic workshops. In their unpretentious appearance, they seem timeless, as if one entered a time warp of the unchanged neighbourhood.
With the series Railway Arches, I am investigating visual realms of accidental creativity done unintentionally. Devoid of people, these images serve as a testament to creative processes done by unsung workers.