The qualm

"Motifs of inclusion and smoke are recurring visual elements in the photo and video work of Wolfgang Oelze. They characterize how he visually addresses voids, labyrinths, bunkers, mounds, quarries and catacombs, or fuzzy spots in various spaces, which first come across like places of memory without disclosing the contents of the memory. In some places, slender plumes of smoke arise without a visible source of fire, spreading like ground mist in the scattered sunlight like local ectoplasms, apparitions in haunted locations that invoke no wars, acts of violence, or sacrificial rituals. [.] They are the effects of the formlessness that correspond to one’s own unconscious – and a respect for the power of this unconscious. The formless is exterior, in the face of the sea or threatening sky; the formless is interior, like under the glass bell jar, which only allows the smoke to escape outside. But where does the formless in the sea, clouds, or woods concur with the formless in oneself, a feeling of anguish or qualm? [In German, the word Qualm (smoke) is closely related etymologically to the word Qual (anguish)]. What smoke passes from inside to outside, from outside to inside? Why do accidents – and the rising billows of smoke signaling and surrounding them – have such a power of attraction?” Thomas Macho 'Spellbound by the Formless', (from the catalog text). With texts by Jens Asthoff and Thomas Macho.