Gerhard Lang’s Palaeanthropical Physiognomy Q&A

Intrigued by the idea of exploring human perception through pictures of creatures that do not exist (or have not been found as yet), Gerhard Lang decided to reimagine the application of a surveillance technology, the identikit—in German called the Phantombildgerät (phantom image device)—to create images of human-animal hybrids. He made the faces pictured in his photographic collection Palaeanthropical Physiognomy in 1991 and 1992 in collaboration with a German police detective using an identikit manufactured in Japan, the Minolta Montage Unit, in an interrogation room at the German Federal Criminal Police Office.

While the police used mugshots of arrested persons as their photographic reference material, Lang, in collaboration with the detective, filled the Minolta Montage Unit with not only human faces (residents of his home village in Germany) but also pictures of insects, primates, owls, and other animals, resulting in phantoms that he photographed and recorded on video. In Lang’s hands, a tool of surveillance becomes a means of playful creation, whether in science or art.

Gerhard Lang will be present to experience and discuss this installation with visitors on site.

RSVP