Photo exhibition by R. BORRMANN: “DIAMONDS gentle giant” at Hood Projects in Düsseldorf. Until the end of March 2023.
The exchange of analogue photographs of painted trains was a custom in the early 1980s within the New York train writing scene. The tracks and the surroundings were important motifs as well around the spray-painted trains in this kind of photography. The negative in particular was coveted, as it made it possible to make (high-quality) prints. This custom is still common among some style writers in the Berlin scene today. The Berlin photographer R. Borrmann owns an extensive archive of painted trains through this barter trade and his own photos. In the exhibition “DIAMONDS- gentle giant” in the gallery Hood Projects in Düsseldorf – directed by Andreas Koop and Peter Michalski -, Borrmann shows unpublished photographic material: various whole cars of the Berlin crew DIAMONDS from recent years. The Berlin-based DIAMONDS crew is a collective of style writers who first made a reputation for themselves individually through classical style writing. When the group was formed in the late 2000s, each member brought in ideas and practices that went beyond classical style writing and focused primarily on collaborative work during the free painting process. At the time, the collective were best known for their innovative, mostly large-scale collaborative abstract pieces/mural paintings. Borrmann’s handprinted large-format analogue colour photographs show the impressive suburban railway carriages painted over by DIAMONDS, standing at certain stations, moving on tracks, as well as sections/details of the abstract paintings.
„DIAMONDS – Moving Cathedrals” publication
At the same time, the Berlin publishing house Hitzerot published the book “DIAMONDS – Moving Cathedrals” with other photographs of this whole car series. The publication focuses on a whole series of works for which the crew as well as friends worked together to take their concept to another level: on several S-Bahn wagons in Berlin that have been elaborately painted over the last three years. By choosing a classic surface and format used in graffiti for their activities – the train carriage – these works received more attention than the earlier productions. Their dynamic, colourful abstract works also seem tailor-made for rolling wagons. Painting collectively on this large surface in a panoramic format, and in a short time frame – means under pressure – requires quick, intuitive collective thinking and action, a certain methodology, in order to create a final satisfactory overall picture. Painting thus becomes a performative action, and thus some photographs are presented at the back of the book with the title Aktion 1 to 6. The 180 pages of the high-quality publication contain remarkable different photographs of the painted S-Bahn wagons in use, which were sometimes in traffic for days or only a few hours. The service life of those trains is specified. Unlike photographs of panels on trains, these canvas-like giants demanded a different kind of photographic documentation with different angles: Close-ups of details of the work were just as important as photos of the whole wagons or pictures of the inside of the wagons. The view of the colourfully painted window panes from the inside, sections that can only be seen through the window frames, is reminiscent of colourful window glass of cathedrals and thus also gave the book its title. Other photographs show the wagons with open doors, which in turn change the overall picture of the painting. Seeing the paintings of DIAMONDS on the suburban trains in different environments and contexts also means being able to look at the works differently and to perceive them differently. Because they appear different in every photograph, surprising with their colour combinations, contrasts, fields, gestural traces. The photos in the series presented originate from three photographers: R. Borrmann, Emmett Edelstein and Enzo Ricordo.
Graphically original set texts, written by the DIAMONDS, provide insights into the authors’ thoughts about participating in these collaborative creative processes: “In the coming together, the simultaneity of the joint process of painting, drawing, the superimposition of signs, shapes and colours, beautiful moments of chaos emerge. Like in a wild storm that tears everything down and throws you back to other, deeper connections. The crazy, deep connection in the moment, where fleetingness shows itself in its radicality.” (…). Another passage asks interesting questions and builds bridges to painting: “Does graffiti have a goal? Are there goals in painting? Recognition, fame, knowledge, honesty, truth, growth, help, self-help, support, strength, rebellion… One this way, the other that way. No clear packaging. TVU with Jazz Style Corner, a bit of 126, HSK, PVC, Critas, Toptens, IND, PofC, ICY, NSK, PAL, TLS, Love Gang…Blade, Comet…Backjumps, Overkill, 70s, 80s, 90s, COBRA, Blaue Reiter mixed with Ghetto 46, Impressionism, Expressionism, Exhibitionism, Future Beat mixed with classical.” (…).* Three external authors also give a different view of these works: Art critic Larissa Kikol, author Tobias Barenthin Lindblad, who places this series in the history of abstract graffiti (from FUTURA2000, SKKI to Club of Rome and AKAY) and finally, photographer Emmett Edelstein has his say and takes us on a photo hunt of the DIAMONDS whole cars.
The 180-page book can be seen as a kind of high-quality exhibition catalogue: of spontaneous, unauthorized, temporary, mobile exhibitions of abstract, anonymous works in Berlin’s S-Bahn network. Visible only for a few hours, glimpsed or even experienced by a chance audience, captured forever by attentive photographers, these artistic works then disappear from circulation forever.
* DIAMONDS, “DIAMONDS – Moving Cathedrals”, published by Verlag Hitzerot, Berlin, 2023, p.41.
https://hood-projects.de https://hitzerot.com/product/diamonds-moving-cathedrals/
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